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THE  EARLY  POPULARITY  OF 
MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY 

OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND  LITERATURE 

IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT  OF  ENGLISH 


BY 

GEORGE  SHERBURN 


Private  Edition,  Distributed  By 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  LIBRARIES 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Reprinted,  with  some  corrections,  from 

Modern  Philology,  Vol.  XVII,  Nos.  5  and  9 

September,  1919,  and  January,  1920 


«<  <**» 


•    •     •   • 


CORRECTIONS 

In  reprinting  this  study  the  following  corrections  have  been  made: 

On  p.  75,  line  6,  1757  is  changed  to  1756. 

On  p.  76,  the  footnotes  are  transferred  to  the  bottom  of  the  page. 

On  p.  85,  under  1604.  the  words  "1690  and"  are  omitted. 

On  p.  90,  Theobald's  Shakespeare  has  been  properly  dated  1733  and  the 
citation  placed  in  its  chronological  position  on  p.  91. 

It  is  highly  regrettable  that  on  page  82  the  volume  entitled  Letters 
supposed  to  have  passed  between  M.  de  St.  Evremond  and  Mr.  Waller  is  cited. 
Professor  R.  D.  Havens  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  these  letters 
are  spurious.  Consequently,  they  have  no  value  whatever  for  this  study. 
Professor  Havens'  note  on  the  matter  will  soon  be  published. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/earlypopularityoOOsherrich 


S6 

MAIM 


PREFACE 

The  study  here  presented  is  a  by-product  of  a  much  more  detailed 
examination  of  the  popularity  of  Alexander  Pope  in  his  own  day, 
which  was  to  have  constituted  my  doctoral  dissertation.  The  rami- 
fications of  the  Pope  problem  and  the  costs  of  printing  so  extensive 
a  study,  however,  have  led  to  the  substitution  of  this  smaller  mono- 
graph as  a  dissertation.  My  intention  is  to  publish  the  work  on 
Pope  later.  It  was  necessary  early  in  the  study  of  Pope's  reputation 
to  determine  roughly  how  Milton  was  regarded  during  the  period  in 
which  Pope  is  commonly  thought  to  have  ranked  as  England's 
greatest  poet.  Such  an  account  of  the  attitude  toward  Milton  had 
been  given,  notably  by  Professors  R.  D.  Havens  and  J.  W.  Good, 
who  had  demonstrated  conclusively  the  superlative  regard  felt  for 
"Paradise  Lost"  in  Pope's  day.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  vogue  of 
the  minor  poems,  which  have  been  generally  regarded  as  neglected 
before  1740,  justified  further  study.  If  this  monograph  succeeds  in 
establishing  a  popularity  for  these  poems  throughout  their  history,  it 
has  direct  bearings  on  their  relationship  to  the  so-called  "romantic" 
movement,  on  the  relationship  of  Thomson's  "Seasons"  to  the  mid- 
century  vogue  of  the  poems,  and  on  the  notion  that  the  eighteenth 
century  saw  a  conscious  struggle  between  rival  schools  of  Pope  and 
of  Milton.  This  antagonism  of  supposed  rival  schools  seems  to  have 
developed  late.  Pope  is  full  of  Miltonic  phrases;  and  Thomson, 
Mallet,  William  Hamilton,  Joseph  Warton,  and  others  of  their  time 
follow  now  Pope,  now  Milton,  with  no  sense  of  incongruity  in  that 
procedure. 

To  prove  the  popularity  of  the  minor  poems  of  Milton  in  the 
period  under  consideration,  a  mass  of  evidence  rather  than  acuteness 
of  interpretation  was  necessary.  The  task  became,  therefore,  one 
of  industry  rather  than  of  argumentative  skill,  and  the  only  excuse 
for  its  laborious  dulness  is  the  fact  that  critics  for  over  a  century 
have  seen  bits  of  this  evidence  but,  with  the  exception  of  William 
Godwin,  have  neglected  to  interpret  the  mass  of  it  properly.  My 
own  study  of  the  matter  was  begun  some  years  ago  as  a  minor 


iv  Preface 

exercise  in  a  course  on  Milton  given  by  Professor  Lovett.  While  I 
have  profited  much  by  the  stimulus  there  received,  the  work  has 
been  continued  mainly  in  casual  connection  with  my  work  on  Pope. 
The  result,  therefore,  makes  no  pretense  to  the  completeness  of  an 
"allusion-book"  (the  seventeenth-century  romantic  drama,  for 
example,  which  should  yield  parallels  to  "Comus,"  has  hardly  been 
touched  for  that  purpose) ;  it  pretends  only  to  demonstrate  that  the 
smaller  pieces  of  Milton's  poetry  were  always  reasonably  popular. 

In  making  the  acknowledgments  customary  on  such  occasions  as 
this,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  recall  and  to  express  gratitude  for  valuable 
training  received  from  Professors  Winchester  and  Mead,  of  Wesleyan 
University,  and  later  from  Professors  Manly,  Lovett,  MacClintock, 
Reynolds,  and  others,  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  Since  much  of 
the  reading  on  this  particular  piece  of  work  was  done  in  Boston  and 
Cambridge,  it  is  merest  justice  to  thank  most  heartily  the  authori- 
ties of  the  Harvard  College  Library  and  of  the  Boston  Public  Library 
for  their  courtesies.  Dr.  Frank  L.  Chase,  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library,  was  particularly  helpful.  Lastly,  I  thank  Professor  D.  H. 
Stevens  for  considerable  labor  in  revising  my  manuscript  and  Pro- 
fessor Baskervill  for  his  unending  editorial  kindness. 

George  Sherburn 
University  op  Chicago 
January,  1920 


THE  EARLY  POPULARITY  OF  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso,  which  are  now  universally  known;  but 
which,  by  a  strange  fatality,  lay  in  a  sort  of  obscurity,  the  private  enjoy- 
ment of  a  few  curious  readers,  till  they  were  set  to  admirable  music  by  Mr. 
Handel.  And,  indeed,  this  volume  of  Milton's  Miscellaneous  Poems  has 
not  till  very  lately  met  with  suitable  regard. — Joseph  Warton,  Essay  on 
the  Genius  and  Writings  of  Pope  (1756),  I,  38. 

On  this  statement,  echoed  in  1785  by  Thomas  Warton  in  his 
edition  of  Milton's  Poems  on  several  occasions1  and  by  Wordsworth 
in  his  "  Essay  supplementary  to  the  Preface  of  1802" — where  the 
recognition  of  the  poems  is  postponed  to  about  1785 — literary  history 
has  been  based.  In  spite  of  the  able  protests  of  William  Godwin2 
against  the  statements  of  Thomas  Warton,  those  statements  have 
prevailed  even  in  the  work  of  recent  students  of  Milton.3  It  is 
important,  however,  to  note  that  Todd,  a  friend  of  Warton's, 
expressed  surprise  "that  Mr.  Warton  should  have  asserted  that  for 
seventy  years  after  their  first  publication,  he  recollects  no  mention 
of  these  poems  in  the  whole  succession  of  English  literature."4 
Todd  thereupon  corrected  some  of  the  mistakes  in  Warton's  facts 
and  cited  some  bits  of  evidence  to  disprove  neglect.  Masson,5 
though  conservative  in  the  matter,  seems  rather  to  agree  with  the 
views  here  to  be  stated.  There  is  no  doubt,  of  course,  that  through- 
out the  eighteenth  century  " Paradise  Lost"  was  much  more  popular 
than  Milton's  other  poems;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  saw  a  great  outburst  of  imitation  and 
praise  of  the  "minor"  poems.  But  an  increased  vogue  does  not 
necessarily  imply  previous  neglect,  and  literary  historians  have 
commonly  said  that  the  minor  poems  were  neglected  for  a  hundred 
years  after  their  first  publication.     A  fairly  extensive,  if  cursory, 

1  See  pp.  x-xii  of  the  2d  ed.  (1791),  to  which  all  my  references  here  are  made. 

1  Godwin's  Lives  of  Edward  and  John  Philips  (1815),  pp.  286  ff. 

» R.  D.  Havens  in  Eng.  Stud.,  XL,  175  ff.,  187  ff.;  J.  W.  Good,  Studies  in  the  Milton 
Tradition  (1915),  pp.  141-42;  Dowden,  Proceedings  of  the  British  Academy  (1907-8), 
p.  291. 

♦Todd's  (2d)  ed.  of  Milton's  Poetical  Works  (1809),  I,  61-62. 

6  See  his  Life  of  Milton,  VI,  775  ff. 
259  75  [Modern  Philology,  September,  1919 


,76 


'•Geoege  Sherburn 


reading  of  English  prose  and  poetry  of  the  century  following  the 
Restoration  has  led  me  to  the  belief  that  phrasal  echoes  as  well  as 
critical  comments  and  multiplicity  of  editions  indicate  for  the  poems 
a  widespread  and  high  regard  from  the  time  of  their  first  publica- 
tion. We  shall  then  study  the  vogue  of  these  poems  before  1740, 
by  which  approximate  date  the  poems  are  commonly  thought  to 
have  attained  due  recognition. 


It  may  be  proper  first  to  examine  the  usual  form  in  which  these 
poems  were  printed.  The  customary  view,  I  believe,  is  that  they 
were  printed  as  a  necessary  part  of  Milton's  "Poetical  Works," 
and  rarely  except  as  such.  At  first  sight  this  seems  an  entirely 
just  view.  In  the  period  under  consideration  were  printed  eighteen 
separate  editions  of  "  Paradise  Lost,"  and  the  poem  appeared  also 
eleven  times  in  editions  classed  by  Dr.  Good  as  "Poetical  Works."1 
The  more  important  of  the  minor  poems,  aside  from  these  eleven 
inevitable  printings,  were  issued,  variously  grouped,  on  an  average 
of  five  times  each  when  clearly  independent  of  the  "Poetical  Works." 
The  following  table,  imitatively  based  on  Dr.  Good's  results,2  may 
be  of  assistance : 


How  Printed 

■ 

00 

5 

ci  O 
&h3 

IS 

si 

y 

09 

B 

B 
o 
D 

■ 
"8 

3 

8 

II 

0Q<5 

A.  In  separate  editions 

18 

2 
2 
2 

9 

1 

1 
2 
2 

9 
1 
2 

2 

2 

9 
1 
2 

C.  In  Poetical  Works  (1  vol.) 

D.  In  "Poetical  Works"  (2  vols.)  (So called 

by  Dr.  Good) 

E.  Paradise  Regain' d  and  minor  poems  .  .  . 

2 
9 

2 

9 

1 

2 

9 
1 

P.   In  Dryden's"  Miscellany 

4 

4 

Total  editions  before  1740 

29 

16 

16 

16 

17 

16 

1  Studies  in  the  Milton  Tradition,  p.  25. 

2  See  op.  cit.,  chapter  ii.  "Comus"  was  in  1738  printed  four  times  in  the  form 
Dalton  gave  it  for  stage  performance.  I  have  omitted  these  editions,  anticipating  an 
objection  that  they  are  not  Milton.  The  table  may  be  further  explained  by  giving  the 
dates  of  editions  (except  the  18  of  "Paradise  Lost").  Under  A  we  have  "Comus" 
in  1637  and  1638;  "Lycidas"  in  1638.  Under  B  the  dates  are  1645,  1673;  under  C, 
1695,  1698  (the  1731  ed.,  Dr.  Good  to  the  contrary,  is  in  two  volumes);  under  D,  1705, 
1707,  1713,  1720,  1721,  1725,  1727,  1730,  1731;  under  E,  1695;  under  P,  1716  and  1727; 
under  G,  1671,  1672,  1680,  1688. 

The  initials  of  the  minor  poems  are  used  throughout  this  article  to  abbreviate  the 
names. 

260 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  77 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  one-volume  and  two-volume  editions 
of  the  Poetical  Works  have  been  separated  here.  In  1695  "  Paradise 
Regain'd,"  "Samson  Agonistes,"  and  the  minor  poems  appeared  as 
a  volume,  and  beginning  with  1705,  according  to  Dr.  Good,  this 
combination  became  the  second  volume  of  the  "  Poetical  Works," 
as  he  calls  them.  It  is  clear  that  in  some  editions — such  as  that  of 
1695 — the  minor  poems  are  regarded  as  subordinated  to  the  three 
major  works,  for  the  minor  poems  are  printed  in  two  columns,  while 
the  others  are  not;  but  when  they  are  (with  "Paradise  Regain'd" 
and  "Samson,"  to  be  sure)  given  a  volume  by  themselves,  they 
cease  in  part  to  depend  on  the  greater  epic.  Their  independence 
seems  more  plausible  when  it  is  noted  that  this  "second"  volume 
is  sometimes — I  have  not  seen  all  the  editions — printed  without 
any  indication  of  the  fact  that  it  is  part  of  the  "Poetical  Works." 
A  specimen  title-page  runs: 

Paradise  Regain'd./  A  POEM./  In  Four  BOOKS./  To  which  is 
added/  SAMSON  AGONISTES./  AND/  POEMS  upon  several  Occasions./ 
With  a  Tractate  of  Education./  The  AUTHOR/  JOHN  MILTON./  The 
FIFTH  EDITION.  Adorn'd  with  Cuts./  London:  Printed  for  /.  Tonson, 
at  Shake/  spear's  Head,  over-against  Catherine-/  Street  in  the  Strand. 
1713./ 

The  only  indication  of  relationship  of  this  volume  to  any  other  is 
a  gilt  "2"  on  the  back;  the  words  "Poetical  Works"  are  nowhere 
to  be  found  in  it.  The  "sixth"  and  "seventh"  editions  of  these 
poems  (1725  and  1730)  lack  even  this  "2,"  as  do  some  of  the  1752 
edition  edited  by  Newton.  Unfortunately,  other  editions  that  I 
have  seen  have  been  recently  rebound,  but  the  title-pages  indicate 
no  connection  between  the  two  volumes.  At  least,  then,  the  idea 
that  the  shorter  pieces  were  printed  only  as  pendants  to  "Paradise 
Lost"  should  be  expressed  with  great  caution.  Indeed,  the  fact 
that  Tonson  printed  these  poems  eight  times  between  1705  and 
1730  in  a  volume  by  themselves  shows  undoubted  commercial 
demand;  for  it  is  practically  certain  that  the  volumes  were  not 
made  to  be  sold  only  in  sets.  Tonson  also  included  three  of  the 
poems — probably  the  most  popular  three — in  Dryden's  Miscellany 
for  1716  and  1727.  The  only  conclusion  safely  to  be  drawn  from 
printing  during  this  period  is  that  these  poems  in  one  combination 

261 


78  George  Sherburn 

or  another  were  so  frequently  before  the  public  that  it  would  be 
strange  if  they  were  not  read.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  during 
the  years  1712  to  1732  "The  Rape  of  the  Lock"—  admittedly  one 
of  the  most  popular  poems  of  its  day —  was  reprinted,  separately 
or  in  combination  with  other  pieces,  about  a  dozen  times.  In  the 
same  period  "1/ Allegro,"  "II  Penseroso,"  and  "Lycidas"  were, 
considering  all  combinations,  printed  about  nine  times.  In  this 
case  reprintings  do  not  prove  much  perhaps;  but  certainly  the 
steady  reprinting  tends  to  disprove  neglect.1 

II 

Preliminary  to  any  presentation  of  "critical"  comment  on  these 
poems  during  our  period,  it  is  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that — 
Milton  entirely  aside — the  critics  of  the  time  seem  to  have  showed 
no  great  acumen;  that  criticism  proceeded  almost  entirely  to  the 
discussion  of  "the  greater  poetry"  (epic,  tragedy,  ode) — about  which 
it  has  said  little  of  permanent  value.  All  lyric  poetry  was  neglected 
by  critics:  in  this  sense  Milton's  minor  poems  were  neglected.  But 
they  were  no  more  neglected  by  critics  than  were  the  smaller  pieces 
of  Cowley,  Waller,  and  Dryden.  It  is,  furthermore,  necessary  to 
remark  that  whenever  the  poems  are  mentioned  by  critics  (with 
perhaps  two  or  three  exceptions)  they  are  mentioned  with  very 
high  praise.2    The  shining  exception  is  Dryden,3  who  in  1693  alleged 

1 1  have  based  my  account  of  these  editions  upon  Dr.  Good's  very  explicit  work 
(op.  cit.,  pp.  24-43).  As  a  matter  of  additional  record,  I  may  cite  Professor  Arber's 
Term  Catalogues  (1903-6),  II,  525,  for  a  reprint  of  "Lycidas"  (1694)  with  a  Latin  version 
by  W.  Hog,  which  Dr.  Good  does  not  count  as  an  English  edition — and  which  I  have 
not  counted  here.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Boston  Public  Library  copy  of  Tonson's 
1695  edition  of  Milton  seems  merely  to  bind  in  unsold  copies  of  the  1688  print  of  "Para- 
dise Regain'd"  and  "Samson  Agonistes."  Dr.  Good  counts  these  two  editions,  and  I 
have  followed  him.  Similarly  I  have  neglected  the  fact,  unnoted  by  him,  that  the  1721 
edition  of  "Paradise  Regain'd, "  etc.,  uses  the  1713  print  of  " Samson  Agonistes."  Quite 
evidently  Tonson  reprinted  only  such  poems  by  Milton  as  the  public  wished  to  buy. 
I  am  frank  to  confess  that  I  have  seen  only  the  editions  of  Milton  that  may  be  seen  at 
Harvard,  at  the  Boston  Public  Library,  and  in  the  various  libraries  of  Chicago. 

2  This  is  true  for  everything  except  "Paradise  Regain'd."  Those  who  say,  as  does 
Dr.  Good  (op.  cit.,  p.  34)  among  others,  that  the  minor  poems  were  "almost  uniformly 
subordinated  to  the  lesser  epic"  should  note  the  fact  that  while  the  minor  poems  are 
mentioned  practically  always  with  praise,  "Paradise  Regain'd"  is  spoken  of  in  quite 
another  tone.  See,  for  example,  Edward  Phillips'  Life  of  Milton  (1694),  p.  ix;  R. 
Meadowcourt's  Critique  on  Milton's  Paradise  Regain'd  (1732),  p.  3;  John  Jortin's 
Remarks  on  Spenser's  Poems  (1734) ,  p.  171 ;  J.  Richardson's  Explanatory  Notes  and  Remarks 
on  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  (1734),  p.  xciv. 

» W.  P.  Ker,  Essays  of  John  Dryden,  II,  30. 

262 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  79 

in  his  own  breezy  manner  that  the  reason  Milton  used  blank  verse 
was  "that  rhyme  was  not  his  talent,"  and  adduced  as  proof  that  the 
rhyme  in  Milton's  early  poems  "is  always  constrained  and  forced, 
and  comes  hardly  from  him,  at  an  age  when  the  soul  is  most  pliant, 
and  the  passion  of  love  makes  almost  every  man  a  rhymer,  though 
not  a  poet."  This  opinion  certainly  indicates  ignorance  of  the 
poems  or  unscrupulous  argumentative  practice — or  probably  both. 
William  Benson,  in  his  Letters  concerning  Poetical  Translations,  and 
VirgiVs  and  Milton's  Arts  of  Verse,  &c.  (1739),  p.  61,  quotes  Dry- 
don's  remark  approvingly;  but  Benson's  rank  as  critic  may  be 
gauged  by  the  fact  that  a  main  thesis  of  his  Letters  is  that  "the 
principal  Advantage  Virgil  has  over  Milton  is  Virgil's  Rhyme" 
(p.  8).  These  views,  in  any  case,  are  highly  exceptional.  If  we 
examine  the  notices  of  the  poems  to  be  found  in  biographies,  essays, 
letters,  and  eulogistic  poems,  we  shall  see  a  considerable  number  of 
passages  expressing  high  commendation.  Because  any  attempt  at 
"organization"  of  this  material  would  be  artificial,  and  because 
there  is  obvious  advantage  in  seeing  the  historical  cumulation  of 
references  to  the  poems,  these  exceedingly  miscellaneous  bits  of 
evidence  will  be  chronologically  listed. 

1637.  Sir  Henry  Wootton's  letter  commendatory  of  "Comus" 
certainly  started  Milton  criticism  with  superlative  praise.  Even 
if,  with  Thomas  Warton,  we  discount  the  tribute  as  due  in  part 
to  friendship,  we  still  see  the  evident  delight  of  the  writer  glow  forth. 
The  letter  is  usually  reprinted  with  "Comus." 

1637.  Lawes,  H.  In  the  dedication  prefixed  to  the  first  edition 
of  "Comus"  Lawes  informs  Viscount  Brackley  "that  the  often 
copying  of  it  hath  tired  my  pen  to  give  my  several  friends  satisfac- 
tion, and  brought  me  to  a  necessity  of  producing  it  to  the  public 
view."1 

1645.  Moseley,  Humphrey.  Moseley,  the  printer  of  the  poems, 
prefixed  to  the  1645  edition  some  remarks  addressed  "To  the 
Reader"  which  seem  significant.     In  part  they  read: 

The  Author's  more  peculiar  excellency  in  these  studies  was  too  well 
known  to  conceal  his  Papers,  or  to  keep  me  from  attempting  to  solicit 
them  from  him.    Let  the  event  guide  itself  which  way  it  will,  I  shall  deserve 

»  Quoted  from  the  Clarendon  Press  ed.  (1906),  I,  46. 

263 


80  George  Sherburn 

of  the  age  by  bringing  into  the  light  as  true  a  birth  as  the  Muses 
have  brought  forth  since  our  famous  SPENSER  wrote;  whose  Poems  in 
these  English  ones  are  as  rarely  imitated  as  sweetly  excelled.1 

After  a  great  deal  of  this  has  been  credited  to  the  eternal  advertising 
tendency,  it  remains  true  that  since  Moseley  was  publisher  for  many 
poets,  he  could  not  afford  to  waste  fond  superlatives  on  poems  that 
were  not  asssured  a  success  even  before  publication.  To  these 
early  tributes  by  Wootton,  Lawes,  and  Moseley  might  be  added 
the  flattering  compliments  paid  the  young  poet  by  his  Italian 
friends,  but  since  we  are  primarily  concerned  with  his  English  repu- 
tation, those  are  here  omitted.2 

Ca.  1648.  Archbishop  Sancroft  thought  highly  enough  of  the 
"Nativity  Ode  "and  the  version  of  the  "Fifty-third  Psalm"  to  copy 
them  from  "John  Milton's  poems."  Thomas  Warton  regarded  this 
act  as  "perhaps  almost  the  only  instance  on  record,  in  that  period 
of  time  [1645-1715],  of  their  having  received  any,  even  a  slight, 
mark  of  attention  or  notice."3  The  statement  is  a  fair  sample  of 
the  lack  of  investigation  upon  which  the  Wartons  based  their  theory 
of  neglect. 

1655.  Cotgrave,  John.  The  English  Treasury  of  Wit  and  Lan- 
guage. Thomas  Warton  (op.  cit.,  p.  vii)  regards  omission  of  the 
minor  poems  from  this  work  as  evidence  of  neglect,  but  Godwin 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Cotgrave  drew  only  from  dramatic 
poets.4  Omission  of  "Comus"  in  such  a  case  becomes  regrettable 
but  comprehensible. 

1657.  Poole,  Joshua.  The  English  Parnassus:  or  a  helpe  to 
English  Poesie.  In  citing  this  as  one  of  the  books  in  which  not 
"the  quantity  of  a  hemistich"  of  Milton  is  quoted,  Warton  made 
one  of  the  worst  blunders  of  his  career.  Godwin  is  quite  right  in 
saying  that  the  ^  Poems  on  Several  Occasions,  published  twelve 
years  before,  appear  to  be  cited  as  often  as  the  writings  of  almost 
any  other  author" — which  means  as  often  as  the  greatest  Elizabe- 
thans are  cited.     Godwin  quotes  Todd  as  saying  "there  are  few 

i  See  Todd's  ed.  (1809),  I,  61;  the  Everyman  Library  ed.,  p.  375;  or  almost  any 
good  edition  for  this  letter. 

8  For  this  Italian  reputation  see  Masson's  Life,  I,  chap,  viii,  passim. 

»See  Thomas  Warton's  ed.  of  Milton's  Poems  upon  several  occasions,  1791  (his 
2d  ed.),  p.  v. 

*  Lives  of  Edward  and  John  Philips  (1815),  p.  286. 

264 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  81 

pages  in  which  quotations  may  not  be  found  from  Milton's 
poetry." 

1660.  Saumaise,  Claude.  Claudii  Salmasii  ad  Johannem  Mil- 
ton um  Responsio.  On  page  5  of  this  work  Saumaise  jeers  at  Milton's 
false  quantities  in  his  Latin  poems,  and  adds  sarcastically : 

Tametsi  aetatera  illis,  qua  scripta  sunt,  non  apposuisset,  facile  tamen 
per>picere  poteramus  pueri  esse  poemata.  Sed  puerilia  errata  praestare 
debet  jam  vir,  cum  &  paucos  abhinc  annos  recudi  Londini  curaverit.  Si 
stylus  hie  ejus  semper  fuisset,  &  amoribus  cantandis  aut  naeniis  mortuali- 
bus  plorandis  tempus  tantum  impendisset,  pessimum  poetarum  longe  ante- 
ferrem  optimo  patronorum,  qui  pessimam  causam  tueretur. 

This  is  not  evidence  of  high  regard,  but  I  think  it  does  argue  the 
poems  known  in  1660.  It  begot  later  criticism.  (See  16#5, 
Morhof.) 

1669.  Phillips,  Edward.  Joannis  Buchleri  Sacrarum  Profana- 
rumque  Phrasium  Poeticarum  Thesaurus  (17th  edition).  Appended 
to  this  work  was  a  section  entitled  Tractatulus  de  Carmine  Dra- 
matico  Poetarum  Veterum,  cui  subjungitur  Compendiosa  Enumeratio 
Poetarum  Recentiorum,  in  which  was  included  the  first  printed 
praise  of  "  Paradise  Lost."  Although  the  work,  like  so  many  others 
of  the  time,  is  almost  literally  an  enumeration,  the  minor  poems  get 
brief  mention : 

Joannes  Miltonius,  praeter  alia  quae  scripsit  elegantissima,  turn  Anglice, 
turn  Latine,  nuper  publici  juris  fecit  Paradisum  Amissum,  Poema,  quod, 
sive  sublimitatem  argumenti,  sive  leporem  simul  et  majestatem  styli,  sive 
sublimitatem  inventionis,  sive  similitudines  et  descriptiones  quam  maxime 
naturales,  respicamus,  vere  Heroicum,  ni  fallor,  audiet:  plurimum  enim 
suffrages  qui  non  nesciunt  judicare,  censetur  perfectionem  hujus  generis 
poematis  assecutum  esse.1 

Thomas  Warton  bars  this  testimony  as  coming  from  a  relative. 
The  superlative  applied  to  the  minor  poems  is  typical. 

1675.  Phillips,  Edward.     Theatrum  Poetarum,  pp.  113-14: 

Iohn  Milton,  the  Author  (not  to  mention  his  other  works,  both  in  Latin 
and  English,  both  in  strict  and  solute  Oration,  by  which  his  Fame  is  suffi- 
ciently known  to  all  the  Learned  of  Europe)  of  two  Heroic  Poems,  and  a 
Tragedy;    namely  Paradice  lost,  Paradice  Regain' d,  and  Samson  Agonista 

1  This  passage  is  quoted  from  Godwin's  Lives  (1815)  of  Milton's  two  nephews,  p. 
145,  note.  / 


sfl 


f^S 


82  George  Sherburn 

[sic];  in  which  how  far  he  hath  reviv'd  the  Majesty  and  true  Decorum  of 
Heroic  Poesy  and  Tragedy:  it  will  better  become  a  person  less  related  then 
myself,  to  deliver  this  judgement. 

This  affirmation  of  an  international  reputation  for  the  early  poems 
is  valuable  evidence  against  the  theory  of  neglect.1 

Ca.  1681?  Aubrey,  John.  Brief  Lives  (Oxford,  1898),  II,  60-72. 
Aubrey's  notes,  concerned  with  biographical  fact  rather  than  criti- 
cism, mention  the  friendship  with  Diodati  as  reflected  in  the  poems, 
and  call  attention  to  Milton's  precocity  by  saying  of  the  " Poems": 
"Somewrittbutat  18." 

Undated  letters  between  Waller  and  St.  Evremond  afford 

invaluable  evidence.  Dr.  Good  dates  the  letters  about  1673  "or 
later"  (op.  cit.,  p.  141).     Waller  writes: 

There  is  one  John  Milton,  an  old  commonwealth's  man,  who  hath  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  life,  written  a  poem  intituled  Paradise  Lost;  and  to  say 
the  truth,  it  is  not  without  some  fancy  and  bold  invention.  But  I  am  much 
better  pleased  with  some  smaller  productions  of  his  in  the  scenical  and 
pastoral  way;  one  of  which  called  Lycidas  I  shall  forthwith  send  you,  that 
you  may  have  some  amends  for  the  trouble  of  reading  this  bad  poetry. 
[He  had  enclosed  verses  of  his  own.] 

And  St.  Evremond  replies: 

The  poem  called  Lycidas,  which  you  say  is  written  by  Mr.  Milton, 
has  given  me  much  pleasure.     It  has  in  it  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  true 

spirit  of  pastoral  poetry,  the  old    Arcadian    enthusiasm What 

pleases  me  in  John  Milton's  poem,  besides  the  true  pastoral  enthusiasm 
and  the  scenical  merit,  is  the  various  and  easy  flow  of  its  numbers.  Those 
measures  are  well  adapted  to  the  tender  kind  of  imagery,  though  they  are 
not  expressive  of  the  first  strong  impressions  of  grief.2 

1687.  Winstanley,  William.  The  lives  of  the  most  Famous  Eng- 
lish Poets.  Here  we  have  one  long  sentence  devoted  to  Milton 
in  which  Winstanley  copies  the  misspelling  of  Milton's  three  major 
titles  from  the  Theatrum  Poetarum,  without  mentioning  the  minor 
poems  at  all.  Phillips'  sentence  about  Milton's  fame  as  based  on 
other  works  than  these  three  roused  all  Winstanley's  political  antag- 

1  An  ambiguity  in  Phillips'  further  praise  of  Milton's  heroic  poems  on  page  114 
(under  John  Phillips)  has  amusingly  misled  the  unintelligent  Winstanley  in  his  Lives 
(1687),  p.  210— and  also  the  D.N.B.  (see  John  Phillips). 

2  These  quotations  are  from  Letters  supposed  to  have  passed  between  M.  de  St.  Evre- 
mond and  Mr.  Waller  (1809),  pp.  133-38. 

266 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  83 

onism  and  he  exclaims:  "But  his  Fame  is  gone  out  like  a  Candle 
in  a  snuff,  and  his  Memory  will  always  stink,  which  might  have 
ever  lived  in  honourable  Repute,  had  he  not  been  a  notorious 
Tray  tor." 

1687.  Ay  res,  Philip.  Lyric  Poems.  In  the  Preface  to  this 
volume  the  writer  defends  "sonnets,  canzons,  madrigals,  &c." — of 
which,  either  original  or  translated,  his  volume  largely  consists — 
saying: 

For  many  eminent  Persons  have  published  several  things  of  this  nature, 
and  in  this  method,  both  Translations  and  Poems  of  their  own;  As  the 
famous  Mr.  Spencer,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Sir  Richard  Fanshaw,  Mr.  Milton, 
and  some  few  others;  The  success  of  all  which,  in  these  things,  I  must  needs 
say,  cannot  much  be  boasted  of;  and  tho'  I  have  little  reason  after  it,  to 
expect  Credit  from  these  my  slight  Miscellanies,  yet  has  it  not  discouraged 
me  from  adventuring  on  what  my  Genius  prompted  me  to. 

This  passage  obviously  is  a  complaint  that  lyric  poetry  (especially 
sonnets,  he  probably  meant)  in  general  is  neglected.  Milton  as  a 
lyricist  is  mentioned  apparently  with  Ayres'  favorites. 

1688.  Morhof,  Daniel  George.  Polyhistor  sive  notitia  auctorum 
et  rerum  commentarii.  I  have  not  seen  this  edition,  but  that  of 
1695  (the  second),  after  a  defense  of  Milton's  Latin  prose  as  compared 
with  that  of  Saumaise,  remarks: 

Quicquid  tamen  ejus  sit,  ostendunt  Miltoni  scripta  virum  vel  in  ipsa 
juventute:  quae  enim  ille  adolescens  scripsit  carmina  Latina,  una  cum 
Anglicis  edita,  aetatem  illam  longe  superant,  qua  ille  vir  scripsit  poemata 
Anglica  sed  sine  rhythmis,  quos  ut  pestes  carminum  vernaculorum  abesse 
volebat,  quale  illud  12.  libris  constans  the  paradise  lost.  Plena  ingenii  & 
acuminis  sunt,  sed  insuavia  tamen  videntur  ob  rhythmi  defectum,  quern 
ego  abesse  a  tali  carminum  genere  non  posse  existimo,  quicquid  etiam  illi, 
&  Italis  nonnullis,  &  nuper  Isaaco  Vossio  in  libro  poematum  cantu, 
videatur.1 

The  first  part  of  this  is  amusing  as  a  reply  to  Saumaise  (vide  supra), 
and  the  last  part  as  a  reaction  to  blank  verse.  There  may  be  lack 
of  judgment  but  there  is  no  lack  of  praise  with  regard  to  the  lesser 
poems.     See  1660  and  also  1732. 

1691.  Langbaine,  Gerard.  An  Account  of  the  English  Dramatick 
Poets.     Milton  is  treated  on  pages  375-77.     A  page  and  a  half  are 

1  Liber  I,  cap.  xxiv,  pp.  304-5. 

267 


84  George  Sherburn 

devoted  to  " Samson,"  mainly  to  its  versification,  and  to  "Comus." 
For  "Comus"  considerable  title-page  information  is  given.  The 
other  poems  are  merely  listed;  the  "Poems  in  Latin  and  English" 
are  dated  1645;  Langbaine  is  ignorant  of  the  date  of  "Paradise 
Lost."  Thomas  Warton  (op.  cit.,  p.  vi)  has  misrepresented  these 
facts. 

1691.  Wood,  Anthony.  Athenae  Oxonienses.  This  work,  again, 
neglects  the  poetical  genius  of  Milton,  but  does  not  neglect  the 
minor  poems  more  than  the  greater  poems.  The  various  poetical 
volumes  are  dutifully  listed,  and  in  column  880  it  is  said:  "By  his 
indefatigable  study  he  profited  exceedingly,  wrote  then  several 
Poems,  paraphras'd  some  of  David's  Psalms,  performed  the  colle- 
giate and  academical  exercise  to  the  admiration  of  all,  and  was 
esteemed  to  be  a  vertuous  and  sober  person,  yet  not  to  be  ignorant 
of  his  own  parts."  In  column  883  after  listing  the  "Poems,  &c.  on 
several  occasions"  as  published  in  1673-4,  he  adds:  "Among  these 
are  mix'd  some  of  his  Poems  before  mention'd,  made  in  his  youth- 
ful years."  In  column  884:  "To  conclude,  he  was  more  admired 
abroad,  and  by  Foreigners,  than  at  home;  and  was  much  visited 
by  them  when  he  liv'd  in  Petty  France,  some  of  whom  have  out  of 
pure  devotion  gone  to  Breadstreet  to  see  the  House  and  Chamber 
where  he  was  born,  &c."  This  last  shows  that  Phillips'  statement 
about  a  continental  reputation  was  not  mere  family  pride.  Prob- 
ably his  Latin  and  Italian  poems  had  by  1690  aided  his  reputation 
throughout  Europe  more  than  had  "Paradise  Lost."  At  least 
Anthony  Wood  did  not  regard  Milton  as  a  poet  of  one  poem. 

1692.  The  Athenian  Mercury,  16  January,  1691-2  (Vol.  V,  No. 
14),  prints  an  interesting  discussion,  "Whether  Milton  and  Waller 
were  not  the  best  English  Poets  ?  and  which  the  better  of  the  two  ?" 
The  poets  are  said  to  be  "both  excellent  in  their  kind" ;  but  Milton's 
merits  are  given  the  more  attention.  "Paradise  Lost"  and  "Sam- 
son" receive  most  space,  but  the  critic  concludes  his  specification  of 
merits  by  saying,  "In  his  Juvenile  Poems,  those  on  Mirth  and 
Melancholly,  an  Elegy  on  his  Friend  that  was  drown'd,  and  especially 
a  Fragment  of  the  Passion,  are  incomparable." 

"Incomparable"  is  a  word  worth  emphasizing.  It  is  hard  to 
see  that  the  critic  here  is  any  less  enthusiastic  over  the  minor  poems 

268 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  85 

than  over  "Paradise  Lost"  or  "Samson,"  which  naturally  receive 
more  space.1 

1692.  [Gildon,  Charles].  Miscellany  Poems  upon  Several  Occa- 
sions. Pages  29-33  print  "Julii  Mazarini,  Cardinalis,  Epitaphium: 
Authore  Joh.  Milton."  This  inclusion  illustrates  the  interest  of 
the  time  in  anything  signed  John  Milton. 

1694.  Phillips,  Edward.  Life  of  Milton.  Prefixed  to  Letters  of 
1  State,  Written  by  Mr.  John  MiUon.  In  this  Life  Phillips  attends  to 
biographical  fact  and  neglects  literary  criticism.  The  "Nativity 
Ode,"  "L'Allegro,"  "II  Penseroso,"  and  "Comus"  are  unmentioned. 
"The  Vacation  Exercise"  and  "Lycidas"  as  growing  out  of  Milton's 
college  experience  are  mentioned.  Of  the  latter  it  is  said:  "Never 
was  the  loss  of  Friend  so  Elegantly  lamented;  and  among  the  rest  of 
his  Juvenile  Poems,  some  he  wrote  at  the  Age  of  15,  which  contain  a 
Poetical  Genius  scarce  to  be  parallel'd  by  any  English  Writer"  (p.  ix). 

1694.  Hog,  William.  In  the  Term  Catalogues  (ed.  Arber,  II, 
525)  the  following  is  listed  for  November,  1694:  "Two  poems  (the 
one  whereof  was  pen'd  by  Clievland;  and  the  other  by  Milton) 
upon  the  death  of  a  worthy  and  learned  young  gentleman,  Mr. 
Ed.  King,  who  was  drown'd  in  the  Irish  Seas.  To  which  is  added, 
a  Latin  Paraphrase  on  both;  which  was  pen'd  by  W.  H.  Quarto." 
See  under  1698. 

1696.  Gildon,  Charles,  editor.  Chorus  Poetarum;  or  poems  on 
Several  Occasions,  etc.  (For  this  date  see  the  Term  Catalogues  [ed. 
Arber],  II,  590.  The  title-page  has  the  combination  MDCLXIXIV.) 
Here  Gildon  prints  (p.  19)  "To  Christina  Queen  of  Sweden  by 
Mr.  Marvel."  These  lines  have  also  been  ascribed  to  Milton. 
Todd,  in  his  edition  of  Milton  (1809,  I,  209),  says  of  these  verses  to 
Christina:  "They  are  ascribed  to  Fleetwood  Shephard  in  a  worth- 
less book,  entitled  Chorus  Poetarum,  8vo.  1684." 

1697.  Bayle,  Pierre.  Dictionaire  historique  et  critique,  II,  590. 
Here  in  a  footnote  Bayle  treats  of  Milton's  poetry.  He  devotes 
more  space  to  the  minor  poems  than  to  "Paradise  Lost,"  but  merely 
summarizes  the  remarks  of  Saumaise  and  gives  dates  for  the  Latin 
poems  and  the  1645  volume.    See  1702. 

1  See  Dr.  Good,  op.  cit.,  p.  142.  I  owe  this  reference  and  some  others  to  the  kindness 
of  Professor  R.  S.  Crane  of  Northwestern  University.  Sir  Thomas  Pope  Blount,  De 
Re  Poetica,  pp.  137-38,  soon  reprinted  the  entire  passage  without  comment. 


86  George  Sherburn 

1698.  Hog,  William.  Comoedia  Joannis  Miltoni,  viri  clarissimi, 
{quae  agebatur  in  Arce  Ludensi,)  paraphrastice  reddita,  a  Gulielmo 
Hogaeo.  So  listed  by  Todd,  Milton's  Works  (1809),  I,  202.  I  have 
not  seen  the  book.  The  preface  should  contain  material  valuable 
for  this  study. 

1698.  Toland,  John.  A  Complete  Collection  of  the  Historical, 
Political,  and  Miscellaneous  Works  of  John  Milton  .  ...  In  Three 
Volumes.  To  which  is  Prefix' d  The  Life  of  the  Author.  The  Life 
which  Toland  here  printed  is  filled  with  the  highest  enthusiasm  for 
all  Milton's  works.  This  Warton  explains  away  as  due  to  the 
influence  of  Edward  Phillips.  The  praise,  however,  has  a  glow  of 
sincerity  that  casts  doubt  upon  Warton's  notion.  Only  a  few 
passages  can  be  quoted.     From  page  7: 

He  wrote  another  Latin  Elegy  to  CHARLES  DEODATI;  and  in  his 
twentieth  year  he  made  one  on  the  approach  of  the  Spring:  but  the  follow- 
ing year  he  describes  his  falling  in  love  with  a  Lady  (whom  he  accidentally 
met,  and  never  afterwards  saw)  in  such  tender  Expressions,  with  those 
lively  Passions  and  Images  so  natural,  that  you  would  think  Love  himself 
had  directed  his  pen,  or  inspir'd  your  own  Breast  when  you  peruse  them. 

From  page  10: 

Our  Author  in  mournful  Notes  bitterly  laments  the  immature  fate  of 
this  young  Gentleman,  whom  he  denotes  by  the  appellation  of  Damon  in 
an  Eclog  nothing  inferior  to  the  Maronian  Daphnis,  and  which  is  to  be  still 
seen  among  his  Latin  Miscellanies. 

From  page  16: 

Thus  far  our  Author,  who  afterwards  made  this  Character  good  in  his 
inimitable  Poem  of  Paradise  Lost;  and  before  this  time  in  his  Comus  or 
Mask  presented  at  Ludlow  Castle,  like  which  Piece  in  the  peculiar 
disposition  of  the  Story,  the  sweetness  of  the  Numbers,  the  justness  of  the 
Expression,  and  the  Moral  it  teaches,  there  is  nothing  extant  in  any  Lan- 
guage. 

Later,  page  44,  Toland  says: 

Our  Author's  Juvenil  and  Occasional  Poems,  both  in  English  and  Latin, 
were  printed  in  one  small  volume.  I  took  notice  of  the  best  of  'em  in  many 
places  of  this  Discourse;  but  the  Monody  wherein  he  bewails  his  Learned 
Friend  Mr.  King  drown'd  in  the  Irish  seas,  is  one  of  the  finest  he  ever  wrote. 

On  pages  20,  24,  and  35  of  his  Life,  Toland  quotes  sonnets  by  Mil- 
ton, four  of  which  he  notes  as  " never  printed  with  his  other  poems." 

270 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  87 

Aside  from  these  sonnets  no  poems  are  in  any  way  treated  as  if 
Toland  thought  himself  their  "discoverer"  or  as  if  he  thought 
himself  dealing  with  poems  that  had  ever  suffered  neglect.  It  is 
astonishing  that  anyone  who  has  read  his  Life  attentively  should 
think  the  poems  were  disregarded  in  Toland's  day. 

1699.  Gildon,  Charles.  Lives  and  Characters  of  the  English 
Dramatic  Poets.  This  reworking  of  Langbaine  (1691)  dwells  natur- 
ally upon  Milton's  two  dramatic  pieces.  Gildon  mentions  the 
indebtedness  of  Dryden's  "  Aureng-zebe  "  to  "Samson"  and  cites 
sources  for  "Samson"  itself.  He  gives  brief  facts  regarding  the 
presentation  and  printing  of  "Comus." 

1702.  Bayle,  Pierre.  Dictionaire  historique  et  critique.  In  this 
edition  of  his  work  Bayle  adds  material  on  Milton  (see  pp.  2112-18) 
from  Toland's  Life.  This  material  deals  with  the  poet's  college 
experience  and  his  Latin  and  Italian  poems,  which  are  mentioned 
with  vague  commendation.  The  surprising  thing  is  that  in  the 
shuffle  of  revision  Bayle  drops  all  mention  of  Milton's  major  works — 
an  omission  notable  in  later  editions  of  the  Dictionaire.1 

1705.  A  Complete  History  of  Europe,  from  the  Year  1600  to  the 
Treaty  of  Nimeguen.  Godwin  (op.  cit.}  pp.  296-97)  quotes  this 
work,  from  the  year  1674: 

There  is  hardly  anything  that  can  make  this  year  more  remarkable 
than  the  death  of  the  famous  John  Milton He  has  left  us  an  inim- 
itable poem  in  blank  verse,  called  Paradice  Lost;  as  also  Paradice  Regain'd, 
Sampson  Agonistes,  and  Occasional  Poems. 

Although  here  the  interest,  being  historical,  is  all  in  Milton's  opin- 
ions, the  mention  is  quotable  as  characteristic,  and  also  because 
Edward  Phillips,  whom  Warton  thought  ever  ready  to  praise  his 
slighted  uncle,  does  not  mention  Milton's  death  in  his  continuation 
of  Baker's  chronicle — at  least  there  is  no  mention  in  the  1730  edition. 
1705.  Sir  William  Trumbull,  a  retired  Secretary  of  State,  on 
October  19  returned  to  his  young  friend  Alexander  Pope  a  borrowed 
copy  of  the  minor  poems,  writing  as  follows: 

I  expected  to  find,  what  I  have  met  with,  an  admirable  genius  in  those 
poems,  not  only  because  they  were  Milton's,  or  were  approved  by  Sir  Henry 

1  On  Birch's  (1738)  revision  of  Bayle's  unsatisfactory  account  of  Milton  see  Dr. 
Good,  op.  cit.,  p.  125,  notes. 

271 


88  George  Sherburn 

Wotton,  but  because  you  had  commended  them;  and  give  me  leave  to 
tell  you,  that  I  know  nobody  so  like  to  equal  him,  even  at  the  age  he  wrote 
most  of  them,  as  yourself.  [From  the  Elwin-Courthope  ed.  of  Pope's 
Works,  VI,  2.] 

This  is  important  as  discrediting  the  ungenerous  story  by  Thomas 
Warton  to  the  effect  that  Pope  "  pilfered  from  COMUS  and  the 
PENSEROSO"  epithets  and  phrases  for  "Eloisa  to  Abelard,"  "con- 
scious, that  he  might  borrow  from  a  book  then  scarcely  remembered, 
without  the  hazard  of  a  discovery,  or  the  imputation  of  plagiarism" 
(op.  cit.,  pp.  x,  xi).  Warton's  further  story  that  his  father  was 
instrumental  in  bringing  these  poems  to  Pope's  attention  about 
1717  is  discredited  by  Trumbull's  letter  as  well  as  by  Pope's  early 
poems,  which  are  saturated  with  the  youthful  work  of  Milton. 
"Then  scarcely  remembered"  is  an  absurd  phrase  to  apply  to  any- 
thing written  by  Milton,  with  "then"  referring  to  1717.1 

1709.  Tatler  No.  98  (Steele),  November  24,  uses  "Comus"  as 
an  example  of  the  effectiveness  of  moral  poetry. 

1711-12.  The  Spectator.  In  No.  249  (December  15,  1711)  Addi- 
son quotes  with  praise  the  passage  on  Laughter  from  "L' Allegro" 
(lines  11-32).  In  No.  425  (July  8,  1712),  lines  61-72  and  147-154 
of  "II  Penseroso"  are  quoted,  ostensibly  from  memory.  One  or 
two  slight  misquotations  make  this  seem  actually  what  is  being 
done.  "Comus  the  God  of  Revels"  is  mentioned  in  this  paper. 
One  would  certainly  expect  more  quotations  from  these  poems  in 
the  Spectator,  but  on  the  other  hand,  outside  the  papers  on  "Para- 
dise Lost"  not  a  great  deal  of  standard  English  poetry  is  quoted; 
attention  is  rather  given  to  new  poems. 

1715.  Hughes,  John.  An  Essay  on  Allegorical  Poetry,  etc.  (See 
W.  H.  Durham,  Critical  Essays  [1700-1725],  pp.  86-104,  especially 
p.  93.)  Here  we  find  quoted  with  admiration  lines  109-20  of  "II 
Penseroso."  In  the  same  essay,  speaking  of  the  story  of  Circe, 
Hughes  remarks:  "There  is  another  Copy  of  the  Circe,  in  a  Mask, 
by  our  famous  Milton;  the  whole  Plan  of  which  is  Allegorical,  and 
it  is  written  with  a  very  Poetical  Spirit  on  the  same  Moral,  tho  with 
different  Characters"  (ibid.,  p.  94). 

1  On  Pope's  indebtedness  to  Milton  see  the  excellent  article  by  Mary  Stuart  Leather 
in  En».  Stud.,  XXV,  400. 

272 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  89 

1716.  Dryden's  Miscellany.  "The  First  part  of  Miscellany 
Poems.  Containing  Variety  of  New  Translations  of  the  ancient 
poets:  Together  with  Several  original  poems.  By  the  Most 
Eminent  Hands.  Publish'd  by  Mr  .  Dryden  ....  The  Fourth 
Edition."  Here,  at  the  reputed  suggestion  of  Fen  ton,  were  included 
"  L' Allegro/ '  "II  Penseroso,"  and  "Lycidas."  They  were  reprinted 
in  the  fifth  edition  of  this  volume  (1727). 

1718.  Gildon,  Charles.  The  Complete  Art  of  Poetry.  This  work, 
as  Warton  has  said,  strangely  neglects  Milton.  Gildon  seems  to 
have  been  more  interested  in  " Samson' '  than  in  Milton's  other 
poems,1  though  he  apparently  realized  the  value  already  attached  to 
anything  by  Milton.2 

1719-21.  Dennis,  John.  Original  Letters,  1721.  Under  date  of 
1719  Dennis  (see  pp.  79-80),  after  quoting  the  epigram  of  Selvaggi 
and  the  verses  of  "Salsiki"  (sic!),  and  mentioning  the  intimacy  with 
Manso,  says:  "Thus,  you  see,  the  Italians,  by  his  juvenile  Essays, 
discover'd  the  great  and  growing  Genius  of  Milton,  whereas  his 
Countrymen  knew  very  little  of  him,  even  thirty  Years  after  he 
had  publish'd  among  them  the  noblest  Poem  in  the  World."  Den- 
nis' mistaken  idea  that  "Paradise  Lost"  was  recognized  with  shame- 
ful tardiness  was  very  likely  the  father  of  the  Warton  notion  about 
the  minor  poems.     Few  critics  now  would  subscribe  to  Dennis'  view. 

1721.  Dennis,  John.  Original  Letters.  In  an  undated  letter, 
written  "about  sixteen  years  ago"  and  now  printed,  Dennis  makes 
ironical  retort  to  Collier's  "Letter:  Containing  a  Defense  of  a 
Regulated  Stage."    He  says: 

To  King  James  succeeded  King  Charles  the  First;  and  then  arose 
another  famous  Reformer,  John  MiUon  by  Name,  who  not  only  left  a 
Tragedy  behind  him,  the  Story  of  which  he  impiously  borrow'd  from  the 
Bible,  written,  to  leave  him  without  Excuse,  in  his  mature,  nay  declining 
Years,  but  has  left  a  fine  Encomium  on  Shakespear;  has  shewn  an  extraor- 
dinary Esteem  for  Johnson;  and  among  all  the  Things  that  he  thought 
fit  to  reform,  so  far  had  Prejudice  laid  hold  of  his  Understanding,  it  never 
so  much  as  came  into  his  Head  that  the  Stage  was  one  of  them 
[pp.  225-29]. 

»  See  The  Complete  Art  of  Poetry,  p.  302;  The  Works  of  Mr.  William  Shakespear, 
Volume  the  Seventh  (published  with  Rowe's  ed.,  1710),  p.  lvii;  The  Post-Man  Robb'd 
of  his  Mail  (1719),  p.  243;  and  see  Gildon's  reworking  of  Langbaine,  here  cited  under 

). 

3  See  under  the  years  1692  and  1696. 

273 


90  George  Sherburn 

On  pages  78-79,  as  Thomas  Warton  points  out,  Dennis  quotes 
from  the  Latin  poems  as  used  in  Toland's  Life. 

1723.  Burchet,  J.  "To  Allan  Ramsay  on  his  Richy  and  Sandy." 
Printed  in  the  Poems  of  Allan  Ramsay  (1723),  p.  170.  Though 
ambiguous  the  following  lines  seem  a  tribute  to  Milton's  pastoral 

poems: 

Nor  dost  thou,  Ramsay,  sightless  Milton  wrong 
By  ought  contain'd  in  thy  melodious  Song; 
For  none  but  Addy  could  his  Thoughts  sublime 
\    So  well  unriddle  or  his  mystick  Rhime. 
\And  when  he  deign'd  to  let  his  Fancy  rove 
Where  Sun-burnt  Shepherds  to  the  Nymphs  make  Love, 
Nb  one  e'er  told  in  softer  Notes  the  Tales 
Of  rural  Pleasures  in  the  spangled  Vales.1 

1724/'  Jacob,  Giles.  The  Poetical  Register;  or,  the  Lives  and 
Characters  of  the  English  Dramatick  Poets.  Pages  183-84  condense 
the  material  on  Milton  furnished  by  Langbaine's  Lives,  but  add 
Dry  den's  epigram.  In  his  Historical  Account  of  the  Lives  and  Writ- 
ings of  the  English  Poets,  reprinted  in  this  same  year,  Jacob  devotes 
pages  100-106  to  Milton.  The  literary  criticism  is  taken  almost 
verbatim  from  Toland's  remarks  on  the  precocity  of  Milton's  college 
poems  (which  in  turn  had  echoed  Morhof),  and  also  from  the  Athe- 
nian Mercury  passage  of  1692  which  had  pronounced  the  minor  poems 
"incomparable."  (These  two  volumes  by  Jacob  were  printed  earlier 
than  1724  [1719,  1720],  but  I  have  not  seen  the  first  editions.)    . 

1725.  Fenton,  Elijah.  Life  of  Milton  prefixed  to  the  1725 
edition  of  the  Works.  (I  quote  from  an  1829  reprint.)  Fenton 
praises  the  minor  poems  very  highly.  He  finds  "the  Mask  of 
Comus,  L' Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  and  Lycidas,  all  in  such  an  exquisite 
strain,  that,  though  he  had  left  no  other  monuments  of  his  genius 
behind  him,  his  name  had  been  immortal." 

1730.  Mareuil.  Le  Paradis  reconquis,  traduit  de  VAnglois  de 
Milton;  avec  quelques  autres  Pieces  de  Poesies.  "The  four  Pieces," 
remarks  Birch  (Life  of  Milton,  pp.  lv-lvi),  "which  the  Translator 
has  added,  are  Lycidas,  Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  and  the  Ode  on  Christ's 
Nativity." 

*  Is  this  the  passage  referred  to  by  Dr.  Good,  p.  141,  n.  8  ?  I  have  not  seen  the 
1731  ed.  of  Ramsay. 

274 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  91 

Translation  in  quantity  is  very  much  more  likely  to  result  from 
a  general  fame  of  the  works  than  from  a  personal  partiality 
for  them. 

1730.  Fen  ton,  Elijah.  Observations  on  some  of  Mr.  Waller's 
Poems.  On  page  c,  in  commenting  on  Waller's  lines  "To  Mr. 
Henry  Lawes,"  Fenton  quotes  Milton's  sonnet  to  Lawes. 

1731*  Rowe,  Elizabeth  Singer.  Letters  moral  and  entertaining. 
Part  II.  That  the  minor  poems  were  even  by  1731  dear  to  the 
soft  sentimentalists  may  be  seen  by  the  following:  "As  I  was  sitting 
in  a  summerhouse,  my  usual  retreat  in  an  afternoon,  reading  Mil- 
ton's Elegy  on  Lycidas,  a  downy  slumber  closed  my  eyes,  and  sunk 
my  sorrows  in  the  pleasing  oblivion"  (quoted  from  Mrs.  Rowe's 
Works  [1796],  I,  240). 

1732.  Bentley,  Richard,  editor.  Paradise  Lost.  In  this  notori- 
ous edition  Bentley  uses  the  minor  poems  only  once  for  illustrative 
material.  He  cites  on  page  2  "Comus,"  lines  43^44.  This  is  doubt- 
less to  be  classified  as  "neglect"  of  the  minor  poems. 

1732.  Pearce,  Zachary.  Review  of  the  Text  of  Milton's  Paradise 
Lost.  Thomas  Warton  (p.  xi)  says  that  in  this  book  the  minor 
poems  "frequently  furnish  collateral  evidences  in  favour  of  the 
established  text;  and  in  the  refutation  of  Bentley 's  chimerical 
corrections." 

1732.  Morhof,  Daniel  George.  Polyhistor  Literarius  (3d  ed.). 
From  Tomus  I,  Liber  VII,  cap.  iii  ("De  Poetis   Recentioribus"), 

p.  1070:    "Recensuimus  praecipuos  Poetarum  Latinorum 

Ab  Anglis  commendari  J  oh.  Miltonus,  ut  in  Anglicis,  ita  in  Latinis 
poematibus,  solet."  Here,  as  in  practically  all  the  encyclopedic 
mentions  of  Milton  from  the  very  start,  we  find  admiration  of  his 
lesser  poetry  taken  for  granted. 

1733.  Theobald,  Lewis,  editor.  The  Works  of  Shakespeare.  In 
the  Preface  to  Volume  I,  while  commenting  on  the  opening  of 
"Twelfth  Night,"  Theobald  remarks:  "The  general  beauties  of 
those  two  poems  of  MILTON,  intitled,  U Allegro  and  II  Penseroso, 
are  obvious  to  all  readers,  because  the  descriptions  are  the  most 
poetical  in  the  world."1    He  proceeds  to  show  that  these  two  poems 

1  On  this  passage  see  Warburton's  letter  to  Birch  (1737)  in  Nichols'  Literary  History. 
II,  81. 

275 


92  George  Sherburn 

with  much  art  use  the  same  images  but  excite  opposite  emotions 
by  the  different  moods  in  which  the  images  are  presented. 

1734.  Richardson,  J.  Explanatory  Notes  and  Remarks  on 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost.  By  J.  Richardson,  Father  and  Son,  With  a 
LIFE  of  the  Author,  and  a  Discourse  on  the  Poem.  By  J.  R.  Sen. 
It  is  impossible  to  quote  all  the  enthusiastic  praise  the  minor  poems 
receive  in  this  volume.  "For  their  Dignity  and  Excellence  they 
are  sufficient  to  have  set  him  among  the  most  Celebrated  of  the 
Poets,  even  of  the  Ancients  themselves;  his  Mash  and  Lycidas  are 
perhaps  Superior  to  all  in  their  Several  Kinds"  (p.  xv).  Richard- 
son has  heard  "Lycidas"  placed  above  Theocritus.  As  explanatory 
material,  or  notes,  for  "Paradise  Lost,"  passages  are  cited  from  other 
works  the  following  number  of  times:  from  "Paradise  Regain' d,"  7; 
"Comus,"  4;  "II  Penseroso,"  2;  Sonnets,  2;  one  each  from 
"L' Allegro,"  "Lycidas,"  and  "Samson."  Ten  citations  are  from 
the  Latin  poems  and  seven  from  the  prose  works.  Shakespeare  is 
cited  eleven  times;  Spenser,  ten;  Chaucer,  two;  and  Cowley  and 
Crashaw,  once  each.  I  note  no  citations  from  other  English 
poets. 

1734.  Jortin,  John.  Remarks  on  Spenser's  Poems.  Pages  171- 
86  of  this  slight  volume  are  devoted  to  "Paradise  Lost,"  "Paradise 
Regain'd,"  and  "Samson."  The  book  consists  mainly  of  quota- 
tions, with  a  bit  of  comment.  Except  for  quoting  two  lines  of 
"Lycidas"  (p.  185),  Jortin   neglects  the  poems  that  interest  us. 

1734.  In  this  year  Warburton  and  Theobald  were  in  correspond- 
ence annotating  passages  of  the  minor  poems.  See  John  Nichols' 
Illustrations,  II,  634,  648.  Annotation  usually  follows  rather  than 
precedes  popularity. 

1735.  Duncombe,  William.  Poems  by  John  Hughes,  with  some 
select  essays.  In  his  prefatory  account  of  Hughes'  life  Duncombe 
quotes  "Lycidas,"  lines  70-86,  with  application  to  Hughes. 

1737.  Warburton,  writing  to  Birch  in  this  year,  remarks 
(Nichols'  Illustrations,  II,  79)  of  Milton:  "He  is  the  author  of  three 
perfect  pieces  of  Poetry.  His  'Paradise  Lost,'  'Samson  Agonistes,' 
and  'Masque  at  Ludlow  Castle.'"  And  again  he  says  (ibid.,  p.  81): 
"The  'L' Allegro'  and  'II  Penseroso'  are  certainly  masterpieces  in 
their  kind." 

276 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  93 

1738.  Hay  ward,  Thomas.  The  British  Muse,  or,  A  Collection  of 
Thoughts  Moral,  Natural,  and  Sublime,  of  our  English  Poets.  The  Pref- 
ace (by  William  Oldys)  says  on  page  xx:  "In  his  choice  of  authors, 
he  (i.e.,  the  collector)  has  not  used  the  noted  poets  of  later  date,  as 
Milton,  Cowley,  Waller,  Dryden,  Otway,  Lee,  Prior,  Congreve,  and 
such  of  their  successors  as  adorn  our  own  times;  he  has  chosen 
rather  to  devote  himself  to  neglected  and  expiring  merit."  Never- 
theless Thomas  Warton  (p.  vii)  adds  this  work  to  the  list  of  anthol- 
ogies that  unreasonably  neglect  the  minor  poems.  One  need  only 
quote  Godwin  (op.  cit.,  p.  287),  who  finds  this  omission  by  Hay  ward 

"no  way  extraordinary Hayward  was  far  from  suspecting 

what  Warton  has  discovered,  that  Milton,  either  his  larger,  or  his 
smaller  poems,  was  a  hidden  treasure,  or  that  his  excellencies  were 
among  such  as  'time  and  oblivion  were  on  the  point  of  cancelling." ' 
Of  the  five  anthologies  cited  by  Warton  as  his  major  proof  of  the 
neglect  of  the  poems  under  consideration,  it  must  now  be  evident 
that  only  two — those  by  Bysshe  and  Gildon — could  properly  have 
been  mentioned. 

1738.  Birch,  Thomas.  A  Life  of  Milton  by  Birch  was  prefixed 
to  his  edition  of  the  Complete  Prose  Works  in  this  year.  In  this 
Life  Birch  pays  much  attention  to  the  minor  poems  and  gives  them 
high  praise.  His  point  of  view  is  scholarly  as  well  as  appreciative, 
for  he  gives  many  facts  about  the  poems  and  even  collates  the 
manuscripts  of  some  to  improve  the  text.  This  is  the  sort  of  work 
that  is  done  on  poems  already  popular — not  the  sort  that  would 
increase  the  general  popularity  of  the  poems. 

1740.  Peck,  Francis.  New  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Poetical 
Works  of  Mr.  John  Milton.  This  curious  work  seems  to  be  a  print- 
ing of  notes  and  "commonplace-book"  remarks  that  Peck  had 
been  accumulating  (see  p.  84  for  evidence  of  accumulative  writing). 
Much  space  and  praise  are  awarded  the  minor  poems,  which  receive 
annotation  in  pages  132-70.  The  epics  are  dealt  with  in  pages 
171-211. 

In  completing  this  section  of  our  evidence  it  may  be  well  to 
observe  that  in  Theobald,  Warburton,  Birch,  and  Peck  we  have  a 
strongly  developed  tendency  to  treat  the  poems  not  primarily  as 

277 


94  George  Sherburn 

subjects  of  eulogy — though  these  commentators  all  praise  highly — 
but  as  matter  for  historical  study.  Earlier  we  have  seen  the  poems 
meet  most  astonishing  recognition  in  1657  from  Poole,  and  we  have 
seen  them  as  objects  of  enthusiasm  in  the  criticism  of  Edward 
Phillips,  the  Athenian  Mercury,  Toland,  and  Fenton.  Both  these 
strains  of  appreciation  are  evidence  of  a  popularity  which  in  the 
late  thirties  of  the  eighteenth  century  resulted  in  the  poems'  being 
used  with  musical  settings.  In  1738  Dr.  Arne  wrote  music  for  the 
Rev.  John  Dalton's  version  of  "Comus";  in  1739  Charles  Jennens 
made  an  arrangement  of  "L' Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso" — adding 
a  third  section,  "II  Moderato" — which  Handel  set  to  music.  This 
music,  according  to  Joseph  Warton,  was  what  rescued  the  poems 
from  obscurity!  In  1742  Handel  made  an  oratorio  out  of  " Sam- 
son," and  there  were  later  less  eminent  attempts  on  "Paradise 
Lost"  and  "Lycidas."  If  the  passages  quoted  in  the  preceding 
pages  indicate  anything,  they  seem  to  indicate  that  Joseph  Warton 
was  mistaken  in  thinking  these  musical  settings  a  cause  instead  of 
a  result  of  popularity. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  a  few  volumes  in  which  we  should  expect 
to  find  Milton's  minor  poems  praised,  or  at  least  mentioned,  but 
in  which  the  authors  are  quite  silent  about  them.  These  volumes, 
however,  are  rare — much  rarer  than  Thomas  Warton  apparently 
thought  them.  And  when  criticized — except  by  Saumaise  and 
Dryden — the  minor  poems  are  always  commended,  usually  with 
superlative  praise.  The  case  might  rest  here;  but  since  the  littera- 
teurs of  this  period  were  fully  as  imitative  as  they  were  critical,  it 
may  be  worth  while  to  note  some  of  the  many  borrowings  from  the 
minor  poems  before  1740. 


278 


Ill 

There  is  hardly  room  here  for  a  discussion  of  the  theories  of 
imitation  prevalent  in  the  years  1645-1740.1  Luckily  the  large 
facts  of  the  case  are  generally  known.  In  the  earlier  part  of  this 
period  imitation  of  classical  genres  was  the  duty  of  every  poet. 
Such  imitation  produced  "Paradise  Lost,"  " Samson  Agonistes," 
and  dozens  of  lesser  creations  in  the  several  approved  " kinds." 
Meanwhile,  there  was  relatively  little  attention  to  types  struck 
out  by  modern  or  English  poets.  Such  writers  were  mainly  utilized 
as  storehouses  of  excellent  phrases,  and  their  diction  was  frequently 
echoed  by  their  successors.  Hence  the  value  of  the  phrasal  digests 
made  by  such  men  as  Poole,  Bysshe,  and  Gildon.  Borrowing 
phrases  was  not  necessarily  a  covert  proceeding,  as  Thomas  Warton 
seems  to  have  thought  (op.  cit.f  pp.  x,  xi),  though  it  was  apparently 
more  creditable  to  borrow  from  the  ancients  than  from  the  moderns. 
The  poet,  if  successful,  made  some  new  or  clever  application  of  the 
phrase  borrowed,  whereupon  he  was  frequently  content  to  advertise 
the  fact  by  printing  the  source  in  a  footnote,  or  by  printing  the 
borrowed  phrase  in  italics.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  occa- 
sional quotation  marks  indicate  borrowings,  but  this  present-day 
method  was  then  rare.  In  most  of  his  poems,  for  example,  Pope 
called  attention  to  his  classical  borrowings — and  decidedly  less  often 
to  his  English  borrowings — in  footnotes.  Not  late  in  the  century 
the  hold  of  the  classical  "kinds"  on  poets  began  to  weaken,  and 
imitations  of  various  English  and  French  poets  became  more  fre- 
quent. The  numberless  imitations  of  Milton's  minor  poems,  or, 
to  be  more  exact,  of  "L'Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso"  around  1750 
do  not  necessarily  imply  a  sudden  awakening  to  the  merits  of  these 
poems;  the  fact  is  merely  that,  Horace's  Satires  and  Ovid's  Heroides 

1  A  very  interesting  comment  on  some  phases  of  imitation  may  be  found  in  the 
University  of  North  Carolina  Studies  in  Philology,  XV,  195-206:  "Imitation  of  Spenser 
and  Milton  in  the  early  Eighteenth  Century:  a  new  Document,"  by  R.  S.  Crane. 

515]  147  [Modern  Philology,  January,  1920 


148  George  Sherburn 

having  had  their  day,  poets  moved  on  to  Boileau,  Fontenelle, 
La  Fontaine,  Spenser,  Cowley,  Butler,  and  Milton. 

The  early  imitations  of  the  minor  poems  here  to  be  cited  consist 
mainly  of  phrasal  echoes.  In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish 
s  structural  imitation  of  most  of  the  poems,  because  they  themselves 
follow  well-established  types.  One  cannot  tell  surely  whether  a 
pastoral  elegy  follows  "Lycidas,"  Theocritus,  Bion,  Virgil,  Sanna- 
zaro,  or  Spenser.  Imitations  of  "L'Allegro,"  "II  Penseroso,"  and 
"Comus"  are  perhaps  easiest  to  detect,  a  fact  which  may  explain 
in  part  why  more  of  them  have  been  noted.  Someone  may  observe 
that  the  parallels  here  noted  are  mainly  later  than  1700.  It  is  true 
that  the  poetry  read  from  the  seventeenth  century  has  yielded  slight 
return,  whereas  the  early  eighteenth-century  parallels  seem  inex- 
haustible.1 

Organization  of  the  citations  again  is  a  problem.  Since  the 
passages  from  Milton  are  not  to  be  printed,  it  seems  wise  to  arrange 
the  parallels  in  the  order  of  the  passages  which  they  recall.  This 
method,  of  course,  is  faulty  because  not  infrequently  two  different 
Milton  poems — sometimes  three — are  reflected  in  one  passage. 

A  rough  chronological  summary  may  be  given.  From  the  seven- 
teenth century  there  are  parallels  in  the  poems  of  at  least  eight 
different  authors.  The  first  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  has 
furnished  about  two  dozen  parallels  from  about  twelve  different 
sources;  the  second  decade,  thirty-five  from  twenty-four  sources; 
the  third,  sixty-five  from  over  thirty  sources;  the  fourth,  over 
thirty  from  less  than  twenty  sources.  There  would  be  a  total  of 
about  fifty  different  men,  of  all  descriptions,  echoing  the  minor 
poems  in  this  period.  Some  poems  cited  are  anonymous,  and  may 
be  by  the  same  author :  this  invalidates  any  rigidly  exact  summary 
in  figures. 

It  may  be  useful  also  to  mention  together  the  individual  poets 
of  the  period  who  were  most  notable  borrowers  from  these  poems. 
The  earliest  and  most  glaring  case — in  which  borrowing  becomes 
rank  plagiarism — is  the  Cyprian  Academy  of  Robert  Baron  (1647). 

»  Professor  C.  A.  Moore  in  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  XXXIV,  278-81,  has  just  pointed  out 
interesting  influences  of  the  minor  poems  on  W.  Hinchliffe's  "Seasons"  (1718),  which  I 
have  not  seen.  Hinchliffe  justly  seems  an  important  link  in  the  tradition  leading  from 
Milton  to  Thomson. 

516 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  149 

Thomas  Warton  (pp.  403-7)  has  cited  sufficiently  numerous  parallels 
from  this  curious  work.  Baron  drew  perhaps  most  frequently  from 
the  "Comus,"  but  he  slighted  nothing,  using  even  the  sonnets  and 
the  Marchioness  of  Winchester  poem.  The  plagiarism  was  con- 
demned; for  in  his  Pocula  Castalia  (1650)  In  an  Epigram  to  Momus 
(p.  124)  Baron  says: 

My  Book,  like  Persius,  'gainst  the  wall  he  hurries 
Saying,  Dicitque  tibi  tua  Pagina  fur  es. 

Another  type  of  indebtedness  is  seen  in  the  mid-century  work 
of  Andrew  Marvell,  who  in  his  poem  "Upon  Apple  ton  House' ' 
seems  influenced  by  the  structure  of  the  two  poems  "L' Allegro" 
and  "II  Penseroso."  Grosart  in  his  edition  of  Marvell  points  out 
that  line  610  of  this  poem  has  the  phrase  "gadding  vines"  from 
"Lycidas,"  line  40.     I  have  seen  no  other  close  verbal  parallels. 

In  the  earlier  eighteenth  century  Pope  is  doubtless  the  most 
illustrious  borrower  of  phrases  from  the  minor  poems,  and  Thomson 
is  the  most  illustrious  borrower  of  mood  and  detail.  Others  whose 
work  was  colored  by  the  poems  are  John  Hughes,  whose  "Calypso 
and  Telemachus"  is  reminiscent  of  "Comus"  in  plot;  Parnell, 
who  has  many  pieces  tinged  with  "II  Penseroso";  Moses  Browne, 
whose  "Piscatory  Eclogues"  (1727,  1739)  are  full  of  echoes;  David 
Mallet,  who  blends  Thomson  with  Milton;  and  William  Hamilton, 
some  of  whose  poems  written  before  1740  are  very  close  to  "II 
Penseroso."  Hamilton  must  have  had  an  auditory  rather  than  a 
visual  memory  for  this  poem,  for  in  "Contemplation"  he  seems 
to  have  translated  "black,  staid  Wisdom's  hue"  ("II  Penseroso," 
1.  16)  into  "Wisdom's  black-stay'd  train."  This  version  is  an 
extreme  specimen  of  the  "hash"  poets  made  of  these  popular 
poems. 


/<T 


It  is  difficult  to  separate  "  L'Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso," 
especially  when  it  comes  to  substantial  imitations.  Gay,  for 
instance,  in  his  "Rural  Sports"  (1713),  Canto  I,  follows  "L'Allegro" 
(11.  41-90)  in  lines  31-52,  and  then  shifting,  follows  "II  Penseroso" 
(11.  131-50;  51-76)  in  lines  53-90  and  105-14.  Dyer  in  1726  pub- 
lished "Grongar  Hill"  and  "The  Country  Walk,"  which  in  a  manner 

517 


150  George  Sherburn 

are  companion  pieces  after  the  model  of  these  two  Milton  poems.1 
In  "An  Epistle  from  a  Gentleman  to  his  Friend  in  the  Country' ' 
(in  the  Bee  for  April  26,  1733  [I,  542-43])  the  emphasis  is  rather  on 
"II  Penseroso"  and  the  night  details,  but  the  resemblance  is  real. 
The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  April,  1735  (V,  215),  has  a  poem  in  the 
vein  of  "L' Allegro"  written  "To  Sylvan  Urban"  recounting  the 
pleasures  of  a  day  in  the  country.  After  noting  these  general, 
structural  imitations,  we  may  pass  to  consideration  of  imitations 
of  specific  passages  of  "L'Allegro." 

Since  the  procul  este  and  the  invocation  of  the  start  seem  very 
popular,  two  or  three  imitations  of  them  need  quotation.  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Rowe  in  an  early  poem  "To  Mrs.  Arabella  Marrow,  in 
the  Country"  writes  (11.  21  ff.): 

Hence  ye  gilded  toys  of  state, 

Ye  formal  follies  of  the  great, 

Nor  e'er  disturb  this  peaceful  seat; 

and  in  Amintor's  poem  "On  our  Saviour's  Nativity"  in  her  Letters 
moral  and  entertaining  (Letter  XII,  dated  1733)  we  read: 

Fly,  rigid  Winter,  with  thy  horid  face. 

And  let  the  soft  and  lovely  Spring  take  place; 

Oh!  come  thou  fairest  season  of  the  year, 

With  garlands  deck'd  and  verdant  robes  appear. 

John  Hughes  (d.  1720)  in  a  paraphrase  of  Horace's  "Integer  vitae" 
went  out  of  his  way  to  write  :2 

Hence  slavish  Fear!  thy  Stygian  Wings  display! 

Thou  ugly  Fiend  of  Hell,  away! 

Wrapp'd  in  thick  Clouds,  and  Shades  of  Night, 

To  conscious  Souls  direct  thy  Flight! 

There  brood  on  Guilt,  fix  there  a  loath'd  Embrace, 

And  propagate  vain  Terrors,  Frights, 

Dreams,  Goblins,  and  imagin'd  Sprights, 

Thy  visionary  Tribe 

1  For  Dyer's  indebtedness  to  Milton  see  an  article  in  the  Journal  of  English  and 
Germanic  Philology,  XVI,  274-81,  by  Professor  Garland  Greever.  In  general,  I  save 
space  by  not  citing  persons  who  have  pointed  out  parallels  that  I  use.  I  am  willing  to 
disclaim  any  credit  there  may  be  in  finding  the  parallels  that  are  exclusively  my  own, 
if  there  be  any  credit;  for  I  have  no  interest  in  the  parallels  as  such — merely  as  proof 
that  the  poems  paralleled  were  known  and  liked.  It  is  only  just,  however,  to  mention 
with  thanks  the  many  editors  of  Pope,  from  Warburton  down ;  the  edition  of  the  "  Seasons ' ' 
by  Zippel;  G.  C.  Macaulay's  Life  of  Thomson;  Professor  J.  E.  Wells's  additions  to  Macau- 
lay's  lists  of  parallels  (  see  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  XXIV,  60-61) ;  and  Mary  Stuart  Leather's 
article  on  "Pope  as  a  Student  of  Milton"  in  Eng.  Stud.,  XXV,  400  ff. 

*  Poems  (1735),  I,  113. 

518 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  151 

Among  briefer  phrasal  echoes  of  the  opening  passage  may  be  noted 
the  "Stygian  caves"  found  in  Thomson's  "Upon  Happiness"  (1.  90); 
and  the  "low-brow'd  rocks"  of  Pope's  "Eloisa"  (1.  244).  A  palpable 
copying  of  Milton's  parentage  of  "heart-easing  Mirth"  (1.  13) 
appears  in  John  Philips'  "Cyder"  (1708;  Chalmers,  VIII,  393-94): 

Now  solemn  Rites  he  pays 
To  Bacchus,  Author  of  Heart-cheering  Mirth. 

The  invitation  of  "L'Allegro"  (11.  25-^0)  was  also  frequently 
imitated.  Lines  25  and  26  are  echoed  in  "The  Happy  Lover's 
Invocation  to  Night"  (Gent.  Mag.,  Ill,  487): 

Night!  to  lovers  joys  a  friend, 
Haste,  and  thy  assistance  lend;- 
Hasten,  godess,  lock  up  day, 
Bring  the  willing  Nymph  away  .... 

Isaac  Hawkins  Brown,  avowedly  imitating  Swift,  writes  in  Imita- 
tion VI  of  his  "Pipe  of  Tobacco"  (Gent.  Mag.,  VI,  105): 

Come  jovial  pipe,  and  bring  along 
Midnight  revelry  and  song. 

Dr.  Hoadly's  "Verses  under  the  Prints  of  Mr.  Hogarth's  Rake's 
Progress"  (1735)  used  the  minor  poems  for  matter,  and  hence  the 
lines  under  plate  II  may  be  quoted,  though  not  especially  close  to 
"L'Allegro": 

PLEASURE,  in  her  silver  throne, 
Smiling  comes,  nor  comes  alone; 
Venus  comes  with  her  along, 
And  smooth  Lyaeus  ever  young; 
And  in  their  train,  to  fill  the  press, 
Come  apish  Dance,  and  swoll'n  Excess, 
Mechanic  Honour,  vicious  Taste, 
And  Fashion  in  her  changing  vest. 

Philips'  "Cyder"  lists  some  figures  familiar  in  the  train  of  Mirth 
(Chalmers,  VIII,  389): 

Heav'n's  sweetest  Blessing,  hail! 
Be  thou  the  copious  Matter  of  my  Song 
And  thy  choice  Nectar;  on  which  always  waits 
Laughter,  and  Sport,  and  care-beguiling  Wit  .... 
519 


152  George  Sherburn 

Parnell  (d.  1718)  had  absorbed  the  minor  poems  before  writing  his 
eclogue  "Health"  (see  Chalmers,  IX,  361): 

Come,  country  goddess,  come;  nor  thou  suffice, 
But  bring  thy  mountain-sister,  Exercise. 


Oh  come,  thou  goddess  of  my  rural  song, 

And  bring  thy  daughter,  calm  Content  along, 

Dame  of  the  ruddy  cheek  and  laughing  eye, 

From  whose  bright  presence  clouds  of  sorrow  fly  ...    . 

Now  to  grave  books  I  bid  the  mind  retreat  .... 

Green's  "Grotto"  in  Dodsley's  Collection,  V,  162-63,  exclaims:1 
Let  not  profane  this  sacred  place, 
Hypocrisy  with  Janus'  face; 


Or  frolic  Mirth  profanely  loud, 
And  happy  only  in  a  crowd; 
Or  Melancholy's  pensive  gloom, 
Proxy  in  Contemplation's  room. 

William  Hamilton  in  his  "Contemplation"  (written  1739)  addresses 
Devotion,  saying: 

Sure  thine  to  put  to  flight  the  boy 

Of  laughter,  sport,  and  idle  joy. 

The  landscape  details  of  early  morning  are  dangerously  conven- 
tional, but  either  because  of  obvious  resemblance  or  of  Miltonic 
details  in  the  context  the  following  parallels  seem  quotable: 

Before  the  yellow  barn  I  see 

A  beautiful  variety 

Of  strutting  cocks,  advancing  stout. 

[Dyer's    "Country    Walk,"    11.    9-11.     Cf.    L'A., 
11.  51-52.] 

Here  let  me  frequent  roam,  preventing  morn, 
Attentive  to  the  cock,  whose  early  throat, 
Heard  from  the  distant  village  in  the  vale, 
Crows  cheerly  out,  far-sounding  through  the  gloom. 

[Mallet's  "Excursion"  (1726)  in  Chalmers,  XIV,  17.    Cf. 
L'A.,  1.  54,  etc.] 


1  Cf.  also  "II  Penseroso,"  1.  54.     Green's  poem  is  advertised  in  Dodsley  as  "printed 
in  the  Year  1732,  but  never  published." 

520 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  153 

Hygeia's  sons  with  hound  and  horn, 
And  jovial  cry  awake  the  Morn. 

[Green's  "Spleen"   (1737),1  11.  73-74.    Cf.  L'A., 
11.  53-54.] 

This  part  of  "L' Allegro"  is,  as  Professor  J.  E.  Wells  has  indicated,2 
reflected  in  the  details  of  Thomson's  "  Morning  in  the  Country," 
especially  in  line  2,  where 

The  morning  springs  in  thousand  liveries  drest. 
Moses  Browne's  "Piscatory  Eclogues"  (1st  ed.,  1727),  as  quoted 
in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  VIII  (1738),  432,  show  the  conven- 
tional whistling  ploughboy  in  a  Miltonic  manner : 

The  plow-boy,  o'er  the  furrows  whistles  blith, 
And  in  the  mead  the  mower  whets  his  syth. 

And  possibly  John  Philips'  "Cyder"  should  also  be  quoted: 

this  the  Peasants  blith 

Will  quaff,  and  whistle,  as  thy  tinkling  Team 
They  drive. 

Milton's  "russet  lawns"  and  high  embosoming  trees  (L'A.,  11.  71, 
78)  are  appealing;  witness  Pope's  "Windsor  Forest,"  11.  23  and 
27,  Thomson's  "Winter"  (1726  version),  1.  74,  and  a  poem  called 
"Stoke's  Bay"  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  IX  (1739),  263-64, 

which  has: 

Here  the  tall  grove  surrounds  the  rural  seat, 
There  russet  downs  the  distant  view  compleat. 

Thomson's  "Autumn"  has  also  a  "russet  mead"  (1.  971)  suitable 
for  solitary  and  pensive  wandering.  Milton  allows  "the  nibbling 
flock"  to  "stray"  here  (1.  72);  Thomson  lets  his  "nibbling  flock 
stray  o'er  the  rising  hills"  in  line  13  of  "On  Beauty,"  a  poem  full 
of  echoes  of  this  passage  of  "L' Allegro"  and  of  "II  Penseroso," 
11.  56-59.  Thomson's  "Spring,"  1.  954,  has  "villages  embosom'd 
soft  in  trees." 

Passing  to  the  country  sports,  we  find  Gay  ("Rural  Sports," 
Canto  1, 11.  31,  32)  echoing  "L'Allegro"  (11.  91,  92)  in  rhyme  at  least 
when  he  exclaims: 

'Tis  not  that  rural  sports  alone  invite 

But  all  the  grateful  country  breathes  delight. 

1  The  rural  images  of  this  poem,  especially  in  11.  630-87,  have  at  least  general  resem- 
blance to  "L'Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso." 
*  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  XXIV.  60. 

521 


154  George  Sherburn 

The  "chequer'd  shade"  (L'A.,  1.  96)  appealed  to  Pope  (" Lines  to 
Gay,"  1.  7)  and  Dyer  ("Grongar  Hill,"  1.  27);  and  Pope  also  liked 
the  later  pleasures  of  the  "spicy  nutbrown  bowl"  ("Wife  of  Bath's 
Prologue,"  1.  214;  cf.  L'A.,  1.  100).  Milton's  passage  on  the  super- 
stitious tales  told  at  night  (11.  101-16)  found  appreciative  reflection 
in  Thomson's  "Autumn,"  11.  1145-56  and  "Winter,"  11.  617-20. 

The  transition  to  the  city  was  early  used  *by  Andrew  Marvell, 
who  in  "The  Garden"  (11.  11,  12),  speaking  to  Quiet  and  Innocence, 

says: 

Mistaken  long,  I  sought  you  then 
In  busy  companies  of  men. 

The  city  pleasures  have  fewer  echoes  than  those  of  the  country. 
Thomson  has  a  poetically  "haunted  stream"   in  "Summer,"  11. 
11,  12  (L'A.,  1.  130),  but  for  the  rest  I  have  noted  only  parallels — 
some  doubtful — to  the  Shakespeare  passage  (L'A.,  11.  131-34) : 
Whether  in  masks  he  pleas'd  the  town; 
The  buskin  or  the  sock  put  on  ...    . 

["Epitaph  for  the  Late  Lord  Lansdown"  in  Gent.  Mag., 
VII,  508  (August,  1737).] 

Is  not  wild  Shakespeare  thine  and  nature's  boast  ? 
[Thomson's  "Summer,"  1.  1566.] 

And  while  by  Art  your  charming  Numbers  move, 
Her  Wood-wild  Notes  instruct  her  to  improve 
[Nahum  Tate,  "To  the  Athenian  Society."]1 

Warble  the  birds,  exulting  on  the  wing, 

And  all  the  wood-wild  notes  the  genial  blessings  sing 

[Wm.  Thompson,  "The  Nativity"  (1736);  see  Chalmers, 
XV,  19.] 

A  final  parallel — to  line  137 — may  be  added  from  the  prose  of 
the  Gentleman's  Magazine  (VII,  195),  where  the  writer  says:  "Mil- 
ton elegantly  expressed  it,  Music  was  married  to  Poetry."  We 
have  here  in  all  something  like  forty-four  parallels  from  about 
twenty-five  authors,  in  poems  all  dating  before  1740. 

B.      "iL   PENSEROSO" 

The  mood  of  "II  Penseroso"  was  so  thoroughly  in  tune  with  the 
mood  of  the  many  poems  on  retirement,  night,  etc.,  produced  in 

1This  poem  was  prefixed  to  Gildon's  History  of  the  Athenian  Society  (1692) 
and  reprinted  by  Dunton  in  his  Life  and  Errors  (1705),  p.  259.  "Her"  refers  to  Tate's 
Muse. 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  155 

this  period,  that  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  Milton's  poem  did 
not  find,  imitators.  Among  the  poems  of  a  melancholy  cast  that 
seem  to  have  a  general  indebtedness  to  "II  Penseroso"  may  be 
listed  the  following:  John  Hughes's  " Thought  in  a  Garden "  (1704); 
"  Pre-existence :  A  Poem  in  Imitation  of  Milton,"1  published  first 
in  1714  with  a  preface  by  J.  B.,  and  reprinted  in  Dodsley's  Collection 
(1766),  I,  158-72,  (see  especially  p.  166);  Parnell's  "Night  Piece  on 
Death,"  "Hymn  to  Contentment,"  and  "Hermit";  James  Ralph's 
"Night"  (1728);  Thomson's  Seasons  in  various  passages;2  and 
perhaps  Mallet's  "Excursion"  (1728),  his  "Hermit,"  and  his 
"Funeral  Hymn";  a  poem  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  IX  (1739), 
599  beginning  "Hail  Melancholy!  gloomy  power";  and  lastly  the 
early  work  of  William  Hamilton,  to  be  quoted  presently. 

We  may  most  conveniently  follow  through   the  parallels  to 
"II  Penseroso"  as  we  did  those  to  "L' Allegro."     The  first  lines 
indeed  were  largely  treated  with  the  opening  of  "L' Allegro,"  but 
we  may  add  Broome's  lines  from  his  ode  "Melancholy"  (1723): 
Adieu,  vain  mirth,  and  noisy  joys! 
Ye  gay  desires,  deluding  toys! 
Thou,  thoughtful  Melancholy,  deign 
To  hide  me  in  thy  pensive  train! 
The  invitation  to  Melancholy  (11.  31  ff.)  found  almost  endless  imita- 
tion.    Hamilton,  in   his   poem   "To  the  Countess  of  Eglintoun"8 
(1726),  even  applies  to  Happiness  the  sedate  Mil  tonic  adjectives: 
Nun  sober  and  devout!  why  art  thou  fled 
To  hide  in  shades  thy  meek  contented  head  ? 
Virgin  of  aspect  mild!  ah  why  unkind, 
Fly'st  thou  displeas'd,  the  commerce  of  mankind  ? 
O!  teach  our  steps  to  find  the  secret  cell 
Where  with  thy  sire  Content  thou  lov'st  to  dwell. 
Similarly  in  "Contemplation"  (written  1739)  after  Faith  and  Hope 
have  been  invited,  he  proceeds  in  Miltonic  fashion: 
And  bring  the  meek-ey'd  Charity,4 
Not  least,  though  youngest  of  the  three: 


»  See  Notes  and  Queries  for  Jan.  5,  1907  (10  ser.,  VII,  4). 

2  See  the  Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature,  X,  108;  Zippel  remarks  a  resem- 
blance in  the  first  form  of  "Winter,"  11. 33-300,  to  Milton's  poem  from  1. 45  on;  Professor 
Wells  has  thought  "Spring,"  11.  1024-47,  worth  citing;  and  there  are  other  passages. 

3  Hamilton's  poems  are  quoted  from  Chalmers,  Vol.  XV. 
*  Cf.  "meek-ey'd  Peace"  in  the  "Nativity  Hymn,"  1.  46. 

523 


156  George  Sherburn 

With  Silence,  sober-suited  maid, 

Seldom  on  this  earth  surveyed: 

Bid  in  this  sacred  band  appear, 

That  aged  venerable  seer, 

With  sorrowing  pale,  with  watchings  spare, 

Of  pleasing  yet  dejected  air, 

Him,  heavenly  Melancholy  hight, 

Who  flies  the  sons  of  false  delight, 


Last  to  crown  all,  with  these  be  join'd 
The  decent  nun,  fair  Peace  of  Mind, 
Whom  innocence,  ere  yet  betray'd, 
Bore  in  Eden's  happy  shade. 

Hamilton  continues  presently  with  an  address  to  Devotion  quite 
in  this  same  strain.  In  this  one  poem  he  has  echoes  not  only  of 
"II  Penseroso"  but  of  "L' Allegro,"  "Lycidas,"  and  the  "Nativity 
Hymn."  Thomson  likewise  goes  to  Milton  when  he  wishes  to 
summon  his  Amanda:1 

Come  with  those  downcast  eyes,  sedate  and  sweet, 
Those  looks  demure  that  deeply  pierce  the  soul. 

Milton  would  doubtless  prefer  to  think  the  following  address  to 
Delia  (Queen  Caroline?)  from  Green's  "Grotto"  as  "without 
father  bred,"  but  it  seems  Miltonic — though  it  is  Milton  sadly 

debased : 

Come  Nymph  with  rural  honors  drest, 
Virtue's  exterior  form  confest, 
With  charms  untarnished,  innocence 
Display,  and  Eden  shall  commence: 
When  thus  you  come  in  sober  fit, 
And  wisdom  is  prefer'd  to  wit; 
And  looks  diviner  graces  tell, 
Which  don't  with  giggling  muscles  dwell. 

The  use  of  the  somber  details  (11.  34,  35)  of  Milton's  invitation  pass- 
age with  intentionally  gloomy  effect  is  perhaps  best  seen  in  a  passage 
in  Parnell's  "Night  Piece  on  Death": 

Why  then  thy  flowing  sable  stoles, 
Deep  pendent  cypress,  mourning  poles, 
Loose  scarfs  to  fall  athwart  thy  weeds, 
Long  palls,  drawn  hearses,  cover'd  steeds, 
And  plumes  of  black,  that,  as  they  tread, 
Nod  o'er  the  escutcheons  of  the  dead  ? 

1  "Spring,"  11.  485-86.     Cf.  also  "L' Allegro,"  1.  138. 

524 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  157 

Mallet  in  his  "Excursion"  presents  Night  in  a  pensive  fashion  less 

gloomy: 

Onward  she  comes  with  silent  step  and  slow, 
In  her  brown  mantle  wrapt,  and  brings  along 
The  still,  the  mild,  the  melancholy  hour, 
And  Meditation,  with  his  eye  on  Heaven. 

Mallet  here  has  made  especial  use  of  lines  38  and  39.  Parallels 
to  line  42  are  strangely  few;  at  least  the  only  one  I  have  seen  is 
in  Pope's  "Eloisa"  (1.24): 

I  have  not  yet  forgot  myself  to  stone. 
In  "Grongar  Hill"  (1.  115)  similarly  is  the  only  use  noted  of  the 
"trim  gardens"  of  line  50. 

"The  cherub  Contemplation"  as  conceived  by  Milton  in  his 
poem  (1.  54)  and  in  "Comus"  (1.  377)  was  thought  by  Newton  to 
be  new  and  less  satisfactory  than  Spenser's  figure  of  venerable 
age.1  Both  conceptions  are  met  with  in  our  period.  Hamilton  in 
his  poem  "Contemplation"  gives  a  Miltonic  treatment;  Green 
("The  Grotto,"  1.  166)  places  Contemplation  with  other  figures 
from  "II  Penseroso";  and  perhaps  two  lines  from  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Rowe's  Letters  moral  and  entertaining  (1729)  reflect  Milton: 
Upon  its  banks  you,  undisturb'd  may  ly, 
While  Contemplation  wafts  you  to  the  sky.2 

Passages  concerning  Philomela  and  the  moon  are  usually  too 
conventional  to  be  associated  specifically  with  Milton's  famous  lines 
56-72.  The  moon  affords  more  and  better  parallels,  two  of  which 
are  worth  quoting: 

Now  stooping,  seems  to  kiss  the  passing  cloud: 
Now,  o'er  the  pure  Cerulean,  rides  sublime 

[Thomson's  "Winter"  (1726  version),  11.  91,  92;  cf. 
"II  Penseroso,"  11.  67-68,  71-72,  and  "Comus," 
11.  331-33]. 

Now  while  Phoebus  riding  high 
[Dyer's  "Grongar  Hill,"  1.  11]. 

The  sound  of  Milton's  curfew  (1.  76)  had  at  least  one  astonishing 
echo.     The  Grub-street  Journal  for  February  5, 1730,  in  distinguishing 

i  See  Newton's  ed.  of  Milton's  Works,  III,  372,  note  on  **ll  Penseroso,"  1.  52; 
and  compare  "Faerie  Queene,"  I,  Canto  X,  11.  46-48,  for  the  figure  "of  a  venerable  old 
man."  In  his  "Hymn  to  Heavenly  Beauty,"  11.  133-36,  Spenser  seems  to  me  to  furnish 
sufficient  source  for  a  soaring  Contemplation. 

*  Quoted  from  her  Works  (1796),  I,  172. 

525 


158  George  Sherburn 

between  "the  Parnassian  and  the  Grubean  fashions "  of  imitating 

Milton,  cites  as  example  of  the  latter,  John  Dennis'  "Poem  on  the 

battle  of  Blenheim.' '    Dennis  writes  thus  of  the  Danube: 

....  thy  brown  billows  sounding  on  the  shore 

And  swinging  slow  with  hoarse  and  sullen  roar, 

Kept  murmuring  comfort  to  thy  threat'ning  moan. 

James  Ralph's  "Night"  is  also  criticized  in  the  Journal  essay. 
It  is  interesting  to  see  any  periodical  in  1730  assuming  that  imita- 
tion of  Milton — minor  poems  included — is  prevalent,  and  attempting 
to  set  bounds  to  the  mode. 

The  night  scene  indoors  is  easily  conventionalized,  but  at  least 
two  similar  passages  seem  influenced  by  Milton  (11.  79  ff.).    John 
Philips  in  "Cyder"  (Chalmers,  VIII,  388)  writes: 
....  lo!  thoughtful  of  Thy  Gain, 
Not  of  my  Own,  I  all  the  live-long  Day 
Consume  in  Meditation  deep,  recluse 
From  human  Converse,  nor,  at  shut  of  Eve, 
Enjoy  Repose;  but  oft  at  Midnight  Lamp 
Ply  my  brain-racking  Studies  .... 

Certainly  the  mood,  probably  the  "midnight  lamp"  also,  comes 
from  "II  Penseroso"  (cf.  1.  85).  But  the  most  famous  imitation  is 
found  in  the  1726  version  of  "Winter,"  lines  256-58: 

A  rural,  shelter'd,  solitary,  Scene; 
Where  ruddy  Fire,  and  beaming  Tapers  join 
To  chase  the  cheerless  gloom:  there  let  me  sit 
And  hold  high  Converse  with  the  mighty  Dead. 

The  outdoor  details  of  the  following  day  are  more  often  copied, 
especially  the  "twilight  groves"  (1.  133),  which  fitted  the  very 
popular  theme  of  retirement.  The  earlier  details  of  morning  are 
sometimes  used;  at  least  a  faint  echo  of  Milton's  lines  (128-29)  on 
the  morning  breeze  is  to  be  found  in  Pope's  "Winter,"  line  80: 

....  when  the  whisp'ring  breeze, 
Pants  on  the  leaves,  and  dies  upon  the  trees. 

Pope's  "Eloisa"  (1.  163)  borrows  the  "twilight  groves,"  as  do  the 
following  lines  from  Thomson's  "Autumn"  (11.  1030-31),  which  also 
embody  an  echo  of  "L' Allegro,"  line  78: 

Oh!  bear  me  then  to  vast  embowering  shades, 

To  twilight  groves,  and  visionary  vales. 
526 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  159 

The  ease  with  which  shade  and  retirement  are  associated  is  apparent 
in  Broome's  "Poem  on  the  Seat  of  the  War  in  Flanders,  chiefly 
with  relation  to  the  sieges:  with  the  praise  of  peace  and  retirement. 
Written  in  1710,"  where  Broome  entreats: 

Come,  thou  chaste  maid,  here  let  me  stray 
While  the  calm  hours  steal  unperceived  away; 
Here  court  the  Muses,  while  the  Sun  on  high 
Flames  in  the  vault  of  Heaven,  and  fires  the  sky: 
Or  while  the  night's  dark  wings  this  globe  surround, 
And  the  pale  Moon  begins  her  solemn  round. 

And  in  the  morning  he  reads  old  books  "reclin'd"  in  silence  "on  a 
mossy  bed."  The  latter  half  of  an  undated  "Fragment"  by  Mallet1 
shows  alike  the  influence  of  this  noon-time  passage  and  of  similar 
passages  in  "L'Allegro"  and  the  Seasons.  The  bee,  which  Milton 
artfully  (11.  142-43)  and  Mallet  casually  introduce,  was  made 
more  consciously  a  part  of  a  similar  scene  in  Canto  I,  lines  83-86 
of  Gay's  "Rural  Sports": 

The  careful  insect  'midst  his  works  I  view, 
Now  from  the  flowers  exhaust  the  fragrant  dew; 
With  golden  treasures  load  his  little  thighs, 
And  steer  his  distant  journey  through  the  skies. 

Thomson  ("Summer,"  11.  627-28)  seems  to  have  an  eye  on  Gay  as 
well  as  on  Milton,  for  his  bee 

Strays  diligent,  and  with  the  extracted  balm 

Of  fragrant  woodbine  loads  his  little  thigh. 

Todd,  in  his  note  to  line  152,2  cites  a  highly  interesting  passage 
from  the  first  version  of  Thomson's  "Summer": 

And,  frequent,  in  the  middle  watch  of  night, 
Or,  all  day  long,  in  desarts  still,  are  heard, 
Now  here,  now  there,  now  wheeling  in  mid  sky, 
Around,  or  underneath,  aerial  sounds, 
Sent  from  angelick  harps,  and  voices  join'd; 
A  happiness  bestow'd  by  us  alone, 
On  Contemplation,  or  the  hallow'd  ear 
Of  poet,  swelling  to  seraphick  strain. 

The  scene  within  the  church  (11.  155-66)  made  notable  appeal 
to  Pope  and  Addison.     The  "storied  halls"  of  the  "Essay  on  Man," 

i  Chalmers,  XIV.  14. 

*  Milton's  Poetical  Works  (1809),  VI,  135,  note. 

527 


160  George  Sherburn 

Epistle  IV,  line  303,  is  thought  a  reminiscence  of  Milton's  "storied 
windows."  Certainly  in  "Eloisa"  (11.  143^4)  Pope  succeeds  in 
producing  the  romantic  thrill  of  Milton's  church : 

Where  awful  arches  make  a  noon-day  night, 
And  the  dim  windows  shed  a  solemn  light; 

as  he  does  also  in  line  353 : 

From  the  full  choir,  when  loud  Hosannas  rise. 

Addison  conveniently  adopted  some  of  Milton's  organ  details  into 
his  "Ode  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day"  (1699): 

Next,  let  the  solemn  organ  join 

Religious  airs,  and  strains  divine, 

Such  as  may  lift  us  to  the  skies, 

And  set  all  Heaven  before  our  eyes. 

It  is  possible  also  that  John  Pomfret,  at  some  time  about  the  same 
date,  had  line  165  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote,  in  "Love  Triumphant 
over  Reason"  (Chalmers,  VIII,  313): 

My  ravish'd  soul,  with  secret  wonder  frought, 
Lay  all  dissolv'd  in  ecstacy  of  thought. 

The  figurative  use  of  "dissolve,"  however,  seems  generally  popular 
with  both  Milton  and  Pomfret. 

From  the  ending  of  the  poem  we  have  the  phrase  "mossy  cell" 
imitated  in  Dyer's  "Grongar  Hill"  (1.  15)  and  doubtless  many  other 
poems.  Pope's  "Summer"  (1.  32)  palpably  adapts  line  172  of 
"II  Penseroso"  into: 

And  ev'ry  plant  that  drinks  the  morning  dew. 
It  is  well  known  that  John  Hughes  thought  the  ending  might  be 
improved  by  adding  eight  rather  moral  lines  of  his  own  composition. 
They  may  be  read  in  Chalmers,  X,  55. 

Even  if  we  had  no  other  evidence,  it  seems  to  the  writer  that 
the  preceding  parallels  prove  sufficiently  that  English  poets  had, 
before  1740,  thoroughly  masticated — rather  than  mastered — the 
idiom  of  "L' Allegro"  and  "II  Penseroso." 

<Jr~"coMUs" 
Imitations  of  the  genre  of  "Comus"  are  naturally  not  numerous, 
for  the  masque  was  a  declining  type  before  the  eighteenth  century. 
Nevertheless  one  may  note  in  Baron's  Cyprian  Academy  (1648) 

528 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  161 

two  works,  "Bona  Deorum"  and  "Gripus  and  Hegio,"  which  are 
indebted  to  Milton's  poem.  In  1712  John  Hughes  brought  out 
an  opera  called  Calypso  and  Tclcmachus,  which  is  obviously  reminis- 
cent of  "Comus"  in  plot.  The  designs  of  Calypso  are  sufficiently 
indicated  in  the  words  of  Mentor  to  Telemachus : 

She  still  deludes  thee. 

Th'  alluring  cup  she  lately  gave 

Was  filled  with  noxious  Juice 

T  inslave  thy  Reason's  nobler  Pow'rs.1 

Dr.  Good  (p.  35,  note)  also  lists  "Sabrina,  a  Masque  .... 
Founded  on  the  Comus  of  Milton"  as  printed  in  1737.  It  was  by 
Rolli,  and  was  intended  as  operatic  material.  Finally,  in  1738, 
"Comus"  was  reworked  by  the  Rev.  John  Dalton  and  with  music 
by  Dr.  Arne  was  successfully  staged.2  Dalton's  adaptation  was 
for  a  time  frequently  reprinted;  it  doubtless  did  serve  to  increase 
interest  in  Milton's  poem  and  perhaps  in  all  the  minor  poems,  but 
evidently  such  interest  existed  already. 

Further  general  influence  of  the  poem  is  slightly  visible  in  such 

pieces  as  "A  Poem  on  Chastity By  Pastorus"  printed  in 

the  Post-Angel  (III,  152)  for  March,  1702,  and  in  Ralph's  "Night" 
(1728;  see  p.  50),  where  the  poet  remarks: 

Sometimes  the  guardian  pow'rs  of  virtue's  sons, 

Array'd  in  all  the  glories  of  the  sky, 

Descend  indulgent  to  their  earthly  charge, 

And  drive  the  horrors  of  the  night  away; 

Tune  to  immortal  songs  their  golden  lyres, 

And  sooth  the  woes  of  life  with  heav'n's  eternal  joys.3 

There  is  a  somewhat  similar  passage — less  close  to  the  idea  of 
"Comus"— in  Thomson's  "Summer,"  lines  525-30. 

It  is  interesting,  and  of  course  dangerous,  to  speculate  how  far 
the  various  uses  of  the  proper  names  "Comus"  and  "Sabrina"  in 
later  poems  may  be  due  to  the  "Mask."4  Both  occur  before  Milton; 
but  "Comus"  occurred  in  rather  inconspicuous  places.  Sabrina's 
story  is  told  by  Spenser,  whose  predecessors,  in  turn,  seem  to  reach 

i  Prom  Hughes's  Poems  (1735).  II,  55. 

*On  this  matter  see  Gent.  Mag.,  VIII,  151-52,  or  the  Universal  Spectator,  No.  454 
(March  25,  1738). 

*  An  excellent  parallel  to  1.  86  comes  to  light  as  this  goes  to  press.  See  Thomas 
Killigrew's  "Claracilla"  (1664),  p.  5  (Act  I,  Scene  3). 

*  See  Todd's  ed.  of  the  Poetical  Works,  VI,  247-49.  note. 


162  George  Sherburn 

back  as  far  as  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.  But  Rolli  in  retelling  her 
tale  avows  the  stimulus  of  Milton;  and  quite  possibly  John  Philips, 
an  ardent  disciple,  may  have  been  influenced  by  "Comus"  to  devote 
two  lines  to  the  "nais"  in  his  "Cerealia"  (1708).  Moses  Browne's 
seventh  "Piscatory  Eclogue"  (1727,  1739)  also  is  certainly  to  be 
mentioned;  for  in  it  Comus,  a  decent  sort  of  rustic,  sings  in  a  song 
contest  the  story  of  Sabrina — much  in  the  manner  of  Spenser's 
pastorals,  but  with  Miltonic  echoes,  as  when  he  ends: 

Sabrina,  cease  thy  list'ning  flood  to  bring, 
And  Echo,  cease,  and  let  me  cease  to  sing. 

Usually  the  mentions  of  Comus  as  a  rustic  or  supernatural 
being  are  more  definitely  "in  character,"  implying  at  least  joviality. 
Such  mentions  may  be  found  in  Spectator,  No.  425;  in  an  "Anacre- 
ontic" by  Parnell;  in  Congreve's  "Mourning  Muse  of  Alexis"; 
and  lastly  in  Mallet's  "Cupid  and  Hymen" — which  may  date  after 
1740.  An  interesting  modification  of  the  name  is  probably  to  be 
seen  in  a  pastoral  elegy  signed  "Comer us,"  which  has  faint  echoes 
of  "II  Penseroso"  and  "Lycidas."  In  the  elegy  Comer  us  is  a 
typical  shepherd,  not  the  jovial  or  supernatural  personage  of 
Milton.1 

The  phrasal  echoes  of  "Comus"  are  numerous,  though  not 
more  plentiful  than  those  of  the  two  poems  already  considered. 
These  echoes  distribute  themselves  over  the  whole  poem  evenly — 
with  perhaps  some  emphasis  on  the  lyric  portions. 

There  are  notable  parallels  to  the  opening  speech  of  the  Attend- 
ant Spirit.  From  line  6  Pope  took  "low-thoughted  care"  for 
"Eloisa  to  Abelard,"  line  298;  and  Thomson  in  "Autumn,"  line 
967,  has  "low-thoughted  vice"  in  a  passage  otherwise  colored  by 
the  minor  poems.  Pope,  who  curiously  enough  borrowed  more 
from  "Comus"  than  from  any  of  the  other  minor  poems,  "lifted" 
line  14  for  use  in  his  "Epilogue  to  the  Satires"  (Satire  II,  1.  235): 
And  opes  the  temple  of  eternity. 

Dr.  Hoadly  similarly  borrowed  entire  from  line  47  one  of  his  verses 

placed  under  the  third  print  in  Hogarth's  "Rake's  Progress"  (1735): 

Sweet  Poison  of  misused  WINE. 

i  The  poem  was  printed  in  Mist's  Weekly-Journal  for  Sept.  10,  1720  (No.  93;  p.  554), 
and  reprinted  in  the  1722  Collection  of  Letters  from  Mist's  Weekly-Journal,  I,  309-10. 

530 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  163 

Line  53  was  probably  in  Pope's  mind  when  in  his  "Satires  of  Dr. 

Donne  Versified"  (Satire  IV,  11.  166-67)  he  wrote: 

Not  more  amazement  seized  on  Circe's  guests, 
To  see  themselves  fall  endlong  into  beasts. 

The  same  poet,  so  Elwin  pointed  out,1  probably  changed  his  first 
writing  of  "Windsor  Forest,"  line  385,  because  it  too  closely  resem- 
bled the  bold  lines  of  "Comus,"  94-96.  The  tone  of  Milton's  lines 
102-6  is  much  like  that  of  the  conventional  "Anacreontic"  of  his 
century;  but  in  at  least  one  of  Cowley's  "Anacreontics"  (1656), 
as  -Godwin2  points  out,  there  is  unusually  close  resemblance  to 
Milton,  lines  105-6.     Cowley's  lines  are: 

Fill  the  bowl  with  rosie  wine, 

Around  our  temples  roses  twine. 

It  is  further  noticeable  that  Pope's  dancers  in  "January  and  May," 
line  353,  "beat  the  ground"  as  do  those  of  "Comus,"  line  143. 
Perhaps  the  romantic  thrill  of  Comus'  "dazzling  spells"  is  most 
truly  caught  by  Moses  Browne  in  his  fifth  eclogue,  which  ostensibly 
imitates  "Lycidas": 

Mean  time  to  the  merk  gloom  trip  fast  along 

The  wood-nymph  bevy  and  swart  fairy  bands, 

And  the  elf-urchin  throng, 

With  each  drear  shape  that  fives  in  mildew  blight, 

And  ev'ry  blue  fog  of  the  spongy  air, 

Oft  do  I  view  'em  from  the  hilly  lands 

Ere  the  fled  Cock  rings  his  shrill  matin  clear, 

Or  toiling  hind  loath  leaves  his  dawn-woke  dream  .   .   .   .8 

The  scene  between  Comus  and  the  Lady  offers  some  parallels, 
which  are,  however,  of  but  slight  value.  Thomson's  "Winter," 
lines  297-99,  may  be  compared  with  lines  205-9  of  "Comus." 
There  are  doubtfully  significant  resemblances  between  Pope's 
"Winter"  (1.  41)  and  line  230;  and  between  his  Odyssey,  Book  XIII, 
line  57,  and  fine  262  of  "Comus."  More  striking  is  Pope's 
indebtedness  to  lines  290-91  for  lines  61-62  of  his  "Autumn": 
While  lab'ring  oxen,  spent  with  toil  and  heat, 
In  their  loose  traces  from  the  field  retreat. 

*  Pope's  Works,  I,  364,  note. 

*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  287-88. 

» Cf.  with  this  passage  "Comus,"  11.  154,  436,  and  "1/ Allegro,"  1.  114.     The  meter 
may  be  referred  to  "Lycidas." 

531 


164  George  Sherburn 

Echoes  from  the  conversation  between  the  brothers  and  from 
their  scene  with  the  supposed  Thyrsis  group  themselves  about  two 
or  three  passages.  The  first  of  these  deals  with  Contemplation 
(11.  377  ff.),  and  is  to  be  related  to  the  similar  figure  in  "II  Pense- 
roso,"  lines  51-54.  Some  uses  of  this  figure  by  Milton's  successors 
have  been  given;  two  or  three  more  are  worth  giving  in  connection 
with  the  "Comus"  passage: 

Delightful  Mansion!    Blest  Retreat! 
Where  all  is  silent,  all  is  sweet! 
Here  Contemplation  prunes  her  Wings, 
The  raptur'd  Muse  more  tuneful  Sings, 
While  May  leads  on  the  Cheerful  Hours,1 
And  opens  a  New  World  of  Flowers 

[John  Hughes,  "A  Thought  in  a  Garden"  (Poems, 
I,  171)]. 

Nature  in  ev'ry  object  points  the  road, 
Whence  contemplation  wings  my  soul  to  God 

[Mrs.  Mary  Chandler  (ca.  1736?);   quoted  from  T. 
Cibber's  Lives  of  the  Poets,  V,  347]. 

Bear  me,  some  God!  oh  quickly  bear  me  hence 
To  wholesome  Solitude,  the  nurse  of  sense: 
Where  Contemplation  prunes  her  ruffled  wings 
And  the  free  soul  looks  down  to  pity  Kings! 

[Pope,  "  Satires  of  Dr.  Donne,"  Satire  IV,  11.  184  ff.]. 

Another  popular  line  from  this  section  of  the  poem  is  429,  which 
was  used,  slightly  changed,  by  Pope  in  "Eloisa"  (1.  20),  and  by 
Thomson  in  " Spring"  (11.  909-10).  Lines  494-95  also  caught  the 
attention  of  readers:  witness  Pope's  "Summer,"  lines  5-6;  his 
"Winter,"  lines  57-58;  and  Moses  Browne's  eclogue  "The  Sea 
Swains": 

He,  wond'rous  artist,  with  his  magic  lay, 
Could  the  steam's  rapid  tide  encaptiv'd  stay. 

A  striking  parallel  to  line  549  is  seen  in  Thomson's  "Summer," 
lines  947-50: 

At  Evening,  to  the  setting  Sun  he  turns 
A  mournful  Eye,  and  down  his  dying  heart 
Sinks  helpless;  while  the  wonted  Roar  is  up, 
And  Hiss  continual  thro'  the  tedious  Night. 
1  See  also  Milton's  "Sonnet  to  the  Nightingale,"  1.  4. 

532 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  165 

The  lyrics  surrounding  the  appearance  of  Sabrina  were  justly 
among  the  most  popular  parts  of  the  poem.  Ambrose  Philips  in 
his  second  "Pastoral"  (11.  65-66)  perhaps  chose  his  adjectives  from 
"Camus"  (11.859,865): 

Unhappy  Hour,  when  first,  in  youthful  Bud, 
I  left  the  fair  Sabrina's  silver  Flood! 

His  rival,  Pope,  echoed  these  lyrics  in  strange  places.  There  is  a 
"translucent  wave"  from  "Comus,"  line  861,  in  his  "Lines  on  his 
Grotto,"  and  in  his  Odyssey,  Book  VII,  line  10,  may  be  found  "cool, 
translucent  springs"  from  the  same  source.  In  his  Iliad,  Book 
XVIII,  line  64,  a  nereid  appears  wearing  amber  hair  somewhat 
after  Sabrina's  mode  (1.  863);  and  lastly  in  his  "Lament  of  Glum- 
dalclitch"  (1.  48)  we  have  a  significant  reminiscence  of  "Comus," 
lines  898-99,  in  the  line: 

Or  in  the  golden  cowslip's  velvet  head. 

Moses  Browne's  seventh  eclogue  may  be  cited  again  for  the  resem- 
blance of  the  following  couplet  to  "Comus,"  line  825: 

Of  the  smooth  Severn  I  a  Lay  rehearse, 

And  call  the  wave-rob'd  Goddess  to  my  Verse. 

The  beautiful  epilogue  of  the  Spirit  in  "Comus,"  with  its  descrip- 
tion of 

....  those  happy  climes  that  lie 

Where  day  never  shuts  his  eye, 

is  vaguely  paralleled  by  a  poetic  passage  from  Mrs.  Rowe's  Letters 
moral  and  entertaining  (1733),  Letter  X,  in  which  the  sylph  Ariel 
describes  the  abode  of  sylphs.  The  resemblance  is  not  minute; 
there  is  a  similarity  in  the  piling  up  of  details. 

This  concludes  the  total  of  some  forty  parallels  to  "Comus" 
drawn  from  about  twenty  different  writers. 


D. 

Many  of  the  ancient  conventions  of  the  pastoral  elegy  were  so 
widely  known  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  that  it 
is  frequently  difficult  to  tell  whether  a  poet  is  harking  back  to 
"Lycidas"  or  to  the  Greek  elegists  or  Virgil  or  Sannazaro.     It  has 

533 


166  George  Sherburn 

been  pointed  out  that  Milton  follows  these  earlier  elegists  very 
closely  in  passages.1  The  name  "Lycidas,"  for  instance,  is  used 
by  Theocritus,  Bion,  Virgil,  and  Sannazaro,  to  name  shepherds; 
hence  similar  uses  by  Gildon  (Miscellaneous  Letters  [1694],  p.  183), 
Mrs.  Behn  (The  Land  of  Love  [1717],  p.  3),  Broome  ("Daphnis  and 
Lycidas,  A  Pastoral"),  Pope  (" Winter"),  Mrs.  Rowe  (Letter  XX 
of  her  Letters  moral  and  entertaining),  and  Aaron  Hill  ("Cleon  to 
Lycidas")  may  mean  nothing  concerning  the  popularity  of  Milton. 
It  seems  clear,  however,  that  Nicholas  Rowe's  "  Stanzas  to  Lady 
Warwick  on  Mr.  Addison's  going  to  Ireland"  apply  the  name  to 
Addison  with  Miltonic  implications;  for  Addison  was  a  literary 
personage  about  to  risk  his  life  on  the  Irish  seas,  which  had  proved 
fatal  to  Milton's  Lycidas.  Some  of  the  other  works  listed  as 
using  the  name  have  additional  echoes  of  Milton,  but  even  this 
establishes  only  a  probability  of  influence  so  far  as  the  proper  name 
is  concerned. 

Among  the  poems  generally  reminiscent  of  " Lycidas"  are 
Fenton's  "Florelio;  a  Pastoral  lamenting  the  death  of  the  late 
Marquis  of  Blandford"  (ca.  1710),  the  anonymous  poem  signed 
"Comerus"  in  Mist's  Weekly- Journal  for  September  10,  1720,  and 
Moses  Browne's  fifth  eclogue,  "Renock's  Despair.  An  Imitation 
of  Milton's  Lycidas"  (1727,  1739).  This  last  is  by  far  the  most 
important.  Browne  is  evidently  more  concerned  to  copy  the  irreg- 
ular rhyme  recurrence  and  the  varying  meter  than  to  echo  Milton's 
details  or  phrases.  His  preface  of  1739  is  interesting  because  it 
is  highly  eulogistic  of  "Lycidas"  and  because  he  thinks  himself 
its  earliest  imitator.  His  poem  is  the  first  avowed  imitation  that 
I  have  noticed;  but  the  Gentleman1  s  Magazine  for  May,  1740  (X, 
253),  says  the  poem  "is  reckon'd  the  best  Imitation  of  Milton's 
Lycidas  that  has  yet  appear'd";  implying,  certainly,  that  it  was  not 
the  only  imitation.  Probably  Browne  made  his  claim  to  priority 
in  1727 — I  have  not  seen  the  first  edition  of  his  preface.  The  poem 
contains  practically  no  phrasal  reminiscences  of  its  avowed  model. 

In  fact,  there  are  rather  surprisingly  few  sure  phrasal  imitations 
of  the  poem,  considering  the  high  praise  we  have  seen  it  receiving. 

i  See  Professor  Hanford's  study  "The  Pastoral  Elegy  and  Milton's  Lycidas"  in 
P.M.L.A.,  XXV  (1910),  403-47. 

534 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  167 

The  opening  lines  are  recalled  by  a  passage  from  the  midst  of  Mrs. 
Rowe's  poem  "On  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Thyne,  Esq.": 

Ye  tender  myrtles  mourn,  nor  let  your  boughs 

Hereafter  deck  one  joyful  lover's  brows. 

Ye  folding  bays,  and  laurel's  sacred  shade, 

At  once  let  all  your  wreathing  glories  fade. 

Hill's  "Cleon  to  Lycidas"  contains  a  passage  that  recalls  line  10 

and  also  the  ecclesiastical  satire  of  the  poem: 

Bid  throb,  the  muse's  pulse — for  THY  sweet  call, 
What  muse,  uncharm'd,  can  hear  ?  .    .   .    . 


Bid  the  priest  Poet  consecrate  the  rage 
Of  a  wrong'd  nation's  curses.1 


Others  have  seen  a  parallel  between  line  12  and  Pope's  Odyssey, 
Book  XIV,  line  155;  the  resemblance  lies  in  the  thing  described  and 
the  word  "welter,"  which  is  common  to  both.  Pope  is  more  clearly 
echoing  Milton  (1.  34)  in  his  "Summer,"  line  50: 

Rough  satyrs  dance,  and  Pan  applauds  the  song. 

Lines  50,  51,  and  124  were  obviously  in  Broome's  mind  when  he 
wrote,  in  his  poem  "On  the  Death  of  my  dear  Friend  Mr.  Elijah 
Fenton"  (1730): 

Where  were  ye,  Muses,  by  what  fountain  side, 
What  river  sporting,  when  your  favourite  dy'd  ? 


Unlike  those  bards,  who,  uninformed  to  play, 
Grate  on  their  jarring  pipes  a  flashy  lay  .    .    .    .2 

Parnell  seems  in  the  following  from  "Piety"  to  be  thinking  of  the 
noble  passage  where  Milton  (11.  64-76)  condemns  such  poets  as 
celebrate  Amaryllis  or  Neaera's  hair: 

Be  thy  Muse  thy  zeal, 

Dare  to  be  good,  and  all  my  joys  reveal. 

While  other  pencils  flattering  forms  create 

And  paint  the  gaudy  plumes  that  deck  the  great; 

While  other  pens  exalt  the  vain  delight, 


1 1  am  aware  of  Virgil's  neget  quis  carmina  Gallo  f  but  the  ecclesiastical  reference 
added  to  the  other  seems  to  point  to  "Lycidas"  rather  than  to  Virgil's  Eclogues,  X,  3. 

8  The  first  of  these  couplets,  of  course,  might  have  been  inspired  direct  from 
Theocritus,  but  not  the  second. 

535 


168  George  Sherburn 

Whose  wasteful  revel  wakes  the  depth  of  night; 
Or  others  softly  sing  in  idle  lines 
How  Damon  courts,  or  Amaryllis  shines; 
More  wisely  thou  select  a  theme  divine, 
Fame  is  their  recompense,  'tis  Heaven  is  thine. 

The  general  doctrine  together  with  the  attitude  toward  Fame  seems 
Miltonic.  The  proverbial  line  on  fame  (1.  71)  was  possibly  copied 
by  Marvel  in  his  "Fleckno,  an  English  Priest  at  Rome"   (lines 

27-28): 

Only  this  frail  ambition  did  remain 
The  last  distemper  of  the  sober  brain. 

But  of  course  the  aphorism  is  much  older  than  "Lycidas."  The 
attendant  advice  "to  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days"  (1.  72) 
found  clearer  echoes:  Pope  used  the  "laborious  days"  in  his  Iliad, 
Book  IX,  line  431;    and  Hamilton  invoked  "Contemplation"  as 

follows: 

Teach  me  to  scorn,  by  thee  refin'd, 
The  low  delights  of  human  kind: 
Sure  thine  to  put  flight  the  boy 
Of  laughter,  sport,  and  idle  joy. 

Pope  originally  used  another  line  from  this  general  passage  (1.  77) 
in  the  first  form  of  line  131  of  his  "Essay  on  Criticism": 
Ere  warned  Phoebus  touched  his  trembling  ears. 

It  is  dangerous  to  try  to  point  parallels  to  anything  so  conven- 
tional as  the  flower-list  in  "Lycidas";  but  some  passages  seem 
worth  risking.  Pope  in  "Spring,"  line  31,  makes  his  violets  "glow" 
as  did  Milton  (1.  145);  Thomson  ("Spring,"  11.  448-49)  makes 
"cowslips  hang  the  dewy  head"  after  "Lycidas,"  line  147,  and 
possibly  echoes  line  151  in  "Summer,"  lines  1522-23: 

Bring  every  sweetest  Flower,  and  let  me  strow 
The  Grave  where  Russel  lies  .... 

The  flower-list  (11.  107-20)  in  Ambrose  Philips'  third  pastoral,  which 
is  an  elegy,  suggests  Milton  in  some  details,  but  not  certainly  the 
"Lycidas"  passage. 

The  somewhat  unusual  use  of  nectar1  in  the  immortalizing  of 
Lycidas  (1.  175)  very  likely  is  echoed  in  two  lines  from  an  anonymous 

1  On  similar  uses  see  Todd's  note  on  "Comus,"  1.  838,  Poetical  Works  of  Milton 
(1809),  VI,  372. 

536 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  169 

"Ode  to  my  Lord  D.  of  B .     An.  Dom.  1704,"  printed  in  the 

Oxford  and  Cambridge  Miscellany  (1710),  page  294: 

And  now  they  bathe  in  Nectar  Streams, 

Nor  need  the  Sun's  officious  Beams. 

Lycidas'  "oozy  locks"  in  the  same  line  seem  to  have  hit  Moses 
Browne's  fancy;    for  in  his  metamorphosis  of  Glaucus  into  a  sea 

god,  he  writes: 

His  scaly  limbs  outspread  a  larger  space, 
And  oozy  locks  his  azure  shoulders  grace. 

A  last  parallel  may  be  noted  between  the  first  form  of  line  46 
of  Pope's  "Messiah"  and  line  181  of  "Lycidas."    Pope  wrote, 

He  wipes  the  tears  for  ever  from  our  eyes, 
which  is  certainly  closer  to  "Lycidas"  than  to  the  original  passage 
in  Isaiah.     This  completes  the  list  of  not  very  satisfying  parallels 
to  "Lycidas."    At  most  there  are  about  two  dozen  of  them  from 
fifteen  different  writers. 

E.      OTHER  MINOR   POEMS 

To  emphasize  the  fact  that  practically  all  of  Milton's  poems  had 
been  levied  upon  by  imitative  poets  before  1740,  it  is  important 
to  cite  the  parallels  noted  to  his  shorter  pieces. 

The  "Vacation  Exercise"  (11.  91  ff.)  stimulated  Pope  and  Moses 
Browne  to  imitation.  Pope  in  his  "Summer,"  line  2,  and  in  "Wind- 
sor Forest,"  line  340,  uses  "Thame"  for  "Thames"  (cf.  Milton, 
1.  100);  and  in  "Windsor  Forest,"  lines  346-47,  he  borrows  other 
riparian  details: 

The  gulphy  Lee  his  sedgy  tresses  rears; 
And  sullen  Mole,  that  hides  his  diving  flood. 

Browne  in  his  eclogue  "The  Strife"  has  a  river-list  of  record  length 
in  which  all  Milton's  rivers  are  embodied.  In  footnotes  he  refers 
to  the  "Vacation  Exercise"  and  to  "Lycidas,"  line  55.  His 
descriptions  of  or  notes  on  the  Thames,  the  Mole,  the  Avon,  the 
Trent,  the  Lea  and  the  Dee  are  all  in  some  way  conscious  of 
Milton's  rivers. 

It  is  less  surprising  to  find  the  "Nativity  Ode"  echoed.  Lines 
21  and  114  possibly  find  imitation  in  line  894  of  Samuel  Wesley's 
"Epistle  ....  concerning  poetry"  (1700): 

Tho  Virtue's  glittering  Squadrons  drive  the  Field. 
537 


170  George  Sherburn 

From  line  46  Hamilton  probably  derived  "meek-ey'd"  Charity 
for  his  poem  "Contemplation,"  just  as  Pope  made  the  nuns  in 
"Eloisa,"  line  21,  "pale-ey'd"  in  remembrance  of  Milton's  "pale- 
ey'd  priest"  (1.  180).  Grosart  has  pointed  out  that  the  tail  of 
Milton's  "Old  Dragon"  (1.  172)  inspired  lines  151-52  of  Marvell's 
"First  Anniversary  of  the  Government  under  his  Highness  the 
Lord  Protector": 

And  starrs  still  fall,  and  still  the  dragon's  tail 

Swinges  the  volumes  of  its  horrid  flail. 

Lines  173-78  are  perhaps  facetiously  alluded  to  when  the  Weekly- 
Journal:  or  Saturday's  Post  (Mist)  for  August  9,  1718  (p.  519) 
remarks  on  the  fact  that  "the  Athenian  Oracle  is  ceased  and  his 
Godship  Apollo  is  become  dumb."1 

Todd  has  cited  two  interestingly  early  parallels  in  his  notes  to 
lines  229  ff.     The  first  one  reads: 

All  the  purple  pride  that  laces 
The  crimson  curtains  of  thy  bed 

[Crashaw,  Sacred  Poems,  ed.    Paris,  1652,  p.  17]. 

The  second,  Todd  introduces  by  saying  that  Thomas  Forde  in  his 
Fragmenta  Poetica  (1660) 

has  given  us  several  poems  on  Christmas  Day,  in  one  or  two  of  which  he 
adopts  some  sentiments  and  expressions  in  this  sublime  and  wonderful 
Ode;  betraying,  however,  a  want  of  genuine  taste  and  fancy  in  affected 
emendation  or  ridiculous  expansion.    For  example,  in  p.  7, 

What  made  the  sun  post  hence  away 

So  fast,  and  make  so  short  a  day  ? 

Seeing  a  brighter  sun  appear, 

He  ran  and  hid  himself  for  fear: 

Asham'd  to  see  himself  out-shined, 

(Leaving  us  and  night  behind,) 

He  sneaked  away  to  take  a  nap, 

And  hide  himself  in  Thetis  lap. 

Pope's  "Dunciad,"  Book  II,  lines  341-42,  is  obviously  indebted 

to  "Arcades,"  lines  30-31: 

As  under  seas  Alpheus'  secret  sluice 
Bears  Pisa's  off'rings  to  his  Arethuse. 

A  few  parallels  to  the  sonnets  are  notable.  Steele  in  his  Poetical 
Miscellanies   (1714,    1727)   printed  some  anonymous  verses   "To 

i  The  "Athenian  Oracle,"  of  course,  here  means  the  collection  of  questions  and 
answers  reprinted  under  the  title  at  least  as  early  as  1704  from  the  Athenian  Mercury 
(1691-96). 

538 


Early  Popularity  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems  171 

Aristus,  in  imitation  of  a  sonnet  of  Milton.' '    The  "bloomy  spray" 

of  the  nightingale  sonnet  figures  with  song  birds  in  line  23  of  Pope's 

" Spring"  and  in  Ambrose  Philips'  lines  "To  Miss  Charlotte  Pulte- 

ney.     (May  1,   1724)."     Dyer's  "Country  Walk"   (1.  135)  has  a 

"bloomy  mead."     Pope's  "Imitation  of  Martial"  glances  at  the 

phrasing  of  Milton's  sonnet  "On  his  being  arrived  to  the  age  of 

twenty-three"  in  the  following  lines: 

....  While  time  with  still  career 
Wafts  on  his  gentle  wing  his  eightieth  year. 

A  parallel  pointed  out  between  the  same  sonnet  and  the  "Dunciad," 
Book  IV,  line  6,  seems  insignificant. 

This  ends  our  citation  of  parallels  as  evidence  of  interest  in 
Milton's  early  poems.  Any  mathematical  summary  of  such  things 
is  dangerous,  because  one  may  easily  multiply  parallels  by  counting 
a  single  passage  twice  or  three  times.  Without  doing  this,  and 
without  including  Robert  Baron's  work — in  which  the  parallels 
are  too  frequent  for  counting — it  may  be  said  that  roughly  we  have 
here  cited  something  like  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  parallels  from 
about  fifty  different  authors,  though  some  anonymous  poems  may 
be  by  the  same  author  and  thus  cut  down  our  totals.  These 
parallels  are  drawn  from  over  a  hundred  different  works. 

IV 
From  the  evidence  here  presented  with  regard  to  editions,  men- 
tions of  the  poems  in  various  places,  and  parallels  found  in  later 
poems  or  prose,  it  may  be  concluded  that  the  "neglect"  of  the 
minor  poems  before  1740  has  been  somewhat  exaggerated.  Cer- 
tainly the  Warton  brothers  overstated  the  case.  I  have  cited  almost 
a  hundred  writers  who  showed  consciousness  of  these  poems  in  the 
first  century  of  their  existence;  from  these  ninety-odd  persons 
almost  two  hundred  works  have  been  cited,  and  in  these  only  three 
passages  have  taken  a  slighting  attitude  toward  the  poems — those 
by  Saumaise,  Dryden,  and  William  Benson.  Considering  the  size 
of  the  reading  public  and  the  state  of  letters  in  general,  these  two 
hundred  poems,  biographies,  letters,  essays,  etc.,  seem  a  not  incon- 
siderable amount.  Nor  is  the  quality  of  the  attention  given  the 
poems  less  impressive  than  the  quantity.  It  is  probable  that  after 
the  Restoration  Milton's  literary  credit  temporarily  declined — as 

539 


172  George  Sherburn 

his  political  credit  certainly  did;  but  after  the  period  when  Toland's 
Life  was  written,  the  reputation  of  the  minor  poems  is  undoubted. 

Of  the  great  vogue  the  poems  came  to  enjoy  in  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  something  has  already  been  said.  The 
writer  may  perhaps  add  two  very  strong  personal  impressions  that 
have  arisen  in  his  mind  from  reading  much  of  the  poetry  inspired 
by  Milton's  early  pieces.  The  first  is  that  the  vogue  of  the  poems 
after  1730  was  greatly  quickened  by  the  fact  that  Thomson's  "Sea- 
sons" had  made  very  frequent  and  successful  levies  upon  them; 
consequently  the  mid-century  vogue  may  be  in  part  a  tribute  to 
Thomson  rather  than  to  Milton.  In  the  second  place,  it  seems 
doubtful  whether  this  increased  interest  in  the  poems  was  a  blessing 
to  English  poetry.  The  more  poetry  of  the  time  one  reads,  the 
more  doubtful  one  becomes.  The  sentimental  twilight  poems,  the 
feebly  grotesque  night-pieces  that  follow  in  Milton's  train  are  as 
a  rule  not  highly  creditable  to  their  authors.  Some  of  Gray's 
worst  phrases  come  directly  from  these  poems  and  their  kind.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  of  course  true  that  he,  and  some  few  others — 
very  few — got  genuine  inspiration  from  Milton's  minor  poems. 
The  idea  that  poetry  was  debased  by  this  copying  of  Milton  is  not 
original  with  the  present  writer.  The  following  satire  on  the  sort 
of  Miltonism  fostered  by  Dodsley  and  his  Collection  of  Poems  will 
show  the  opinion  of  one  observer  in  1763.  The  verses1  are  entitled 
"To  a  Gentleman,  who  desired  proper  materials  for  a  monody": 

Flowrets — wreaths — thy  banks  along — 

Silent  eve — th'  accustom'd  song — 

Silver-slipper'd — whilom — lore — 

Druid — Paynim — mountain  hoar — 

Dulcet — eremite — what  time — 

("Excuse  me — here  I  want  a  rhime.") 

Black-brow'd  night — Hark!  scretch-owls  sing! 

Ebon  car — and  raven  wing — 

Charnel  houses — lonely  dells — 

Glimmering  tapers — dismal  cells — 

Hallow'd  haunts — and  horrid  piles — 

Roseate  hues — and  ghastly  smiles — 

Solemn  fanes — and  cypress  bowers — 

Thunder-storms — and  tumbling  towers — 

Let  these  be  well  together  blended — 

Dodsley's  your  man — the  poem's  ended. 

University  op  Chicago  George  Sherburn 

1  They  are  quoted  from  the  Fawkes-Woty  Poetical  Calendar  (1763),  V,  111. 

540 


14  T>A&  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


&IAN    5 1984 


KTP     DEC  1 4  1983 


MAR  3   71 


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